Record numbers attending marriage counselling services

Ireland's largest marriage and relationship counselling service has said it provided advice to a record number of clients last year.

The Catholic agency Accord said 8,000 people sat through a total of 30,000 sessions in 2004.

The main problems causing stress within relationships included both parents working outside the home, longer working hours, increased commuting time, and family budgets.

However, Accord's director of counselling, John Farrelly, said the fact that more people were seeking advice did not mean there was more conflict among couples.

"In any form of relationship, you will always have conflict - the key is how you resolve it," he said.

"I think now what we're seeing is that people have the courage to come forward and say: 'We want to be happy together, we love each other and we want to sort out any problems that we have.'"