It does, according to the man behind it, exactly what it says on the tin.

The Iona Institute was launched last week with the mission statement to make the case for marriage and make the case for religion.

The director and founder of the institute is journalist and commentator David Quinn.

Two other newspaper columnists, Breda O'Brien and Pat Kenny, are on board, as are two prominent priests, a pair of evangelising brothers and a mother-of-six.

Its first contribution to public debate was the commissioning of a survey on attitudes to the family. The results were published last week, and as expected, most people think marriage breakup is a bad thing.

The survey consisted of a series of statements with which respondents were asked to agree or disagree.

What didn't emerge was the differing results between men and women. For example, one statement read: "In the absence of violence or extreme conflict, parents in a difficult marriage should stay together until children grow up." To that, twice as many men as women agreed or strongly agreed, while 69% of women disagreed or strongly disagreed, as opposed to only 47% of men.

Another statement read:

"In most cases, the absence of a father from the home is likely to harm a child emotionally or developmentally." To this, 66% of men agreed or strongly agreed compared to only 42% of women, while twice as many women as men disagreed or strongly disagreed.

The gender trend was similar in the other statements, which may say something about feckless women or perhaps something about who fares better when marriage breaks down, particularly if there are kids involved.

Iona is about looking for evidence-based research that marriage breakdown has a negative impact on society.

The evidence, according to Quinn, exists in spades in other countries and pursuit of it here is a way to get greater discussion on the topic. The institute has a similar approach to religious observance and its positive effect on society.

Quinn says he has had the idea of such an organisation for years. "As a journalist, I became conscious of views out there that were similar to mine. About 12 months ago, I made the first moves to see who would put their names to something like this. It's the type of organisation that exists in plenty of other countries."

While all the patrons and members of the board are Catholic, he sees their aims as appealing to Christians of all denominations. Funding, he hopes, will come from small donations from individuals.

"We are completely independent of the established churches, " he says. "If a church wanted to fund us, it would depend on whether it came with strings attached. I wouldn't want any big backer.

I would be reluctant if some body or organisation wanted to give us Euro100,000."

He doesn't see any conflict between his role as a journalist and his new brief. "I'm an opinion journalist and it's not like I'm working to anybody else's agenda, " he says.

"This is an outgrowth of the kind of issues I have been writing about."

Quinn insists that Iona is not a vehicle for the pro-life movement. "That will not be one of our issues, " he says.

"They have their agenda and we have ours." He will work four days a week at the institute, and a part-time researcher, former journalist Tom O'Gorman, is also employed.

Confusion as to the exact thrust of the institute might be sown by the number of its patrons and directors who write newspaper columns.

Quinn, O'Brien, Kenny and Patricia Casey, who is a patron of the body, all write in national newspapers. All have strong views on issues like abortion and write about them. Whether or not those issues seep into Iona's agenda remains to be seen.

On a number of occasions in media interviews over the last week, Quinn referenced organisations involved in tackling poverty to illustrate where Iona is coming from in terms of its right and duty to lobby for its cause.

Whether intentional or not, the references appeared to have a 'sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander' quality about the argument. He rejects any suggestion that he would be opposed to the ideological basis on which many anti-poverty groups operate.

"Poverty deserves all the attention it gets but family breakdown does impact on poverty, " he says. "They have their own emphasis. Just because you're pro-marriage, people assume you're anti what's not pro-marriage."

The amount of support that may exist for the organisation is difficult to gauge, but the fact that at least half the population still regularly attends church suggests that anything that promotes religious observance would appear to have a potentially large base.

Equally, who could be against anything wishing to impact on the negative aspects of marriage breakdown? Quinn says that the institute is still in its infancy and requires major fleshing out over the coming months and years. "Just don't rush to judgement, " he says.

PATRONS OF THE IONA INSTITUTE

Patricia Casey: consultant psychiatrist at the Mater hospital and professor of psychiatry at UCD. Is a fervent pro-life advocate and has campaigned for the pro-life side in recent abortion debates.

She has also campaigned for greater resources to be provided for treating depression and fighting suicide.

Dr James Sheehan: founder of the Blackrock, Galway and Hermitage clinics, private medical facilities which operate according to a Catholic ethos. He is an advocate of the privatisation of the health service as envisaged by the current minister.

Was in the headlines last year when he accused the VHI of unfair treatment towards his Galway clinic.

Fergus O'Donoghue SJ: a Jesuit priest who edits Studies, a quarterly journal dealing with matters of religion and culture.

Last year in an editorial, he challenged Bono, who had referred at a White House prayer meeting to "the damage religion has done to my country." Fr O'Donoghue said the remark "sounded profound, but it is facile if not meaningless, because religion has made Ireland."

Breda O'Brien: a teacher and a columnist with The Irish Times, where she writes principally on religious and social affairs. She also frequently refers to her domestic circumstances, in which she is the breadwinner in her house and her husband does the homemaking.

Fr Vincent Twomey: a member of the Divine Word Missionaries. He was professor of moral theology at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, until last year. He studied under the current pope and is regarded as one of Ireland's foremost theologians.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CHAIRWOMAN: Dr Susan Hegarty is a lecturer in geography at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra.

SECRETARY: Pat Kenny is a lecturer in marketing at DIT and writes a regular column for The Examiner.

Seán Ascough is a chartered engineer and is the director of Youth 2000, a youth evangelical grouping that was set up after Pope John Paul II called for such a body in the early 1980s.

Tom Ascough is a consultant engineer who has been involved in youth evangalisation and other religious organisations for 15 years. "I got involved in my early 20s, " he says.

"Most people haven't a clue what being a Catholic really means. When you unfold the beauty within the faith, it's a positive unveiling for people."

Maeve Kelleher is a stay-at-home mother with six children.

Dr Andrew O'Connell is communications director for the Presentation Brothers in Ireland.

John Reid is managing partner of law firm, O'Rourke Reid.