Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is because I would like to see women in Ireland presenting themselves not in terms of their parenting status but in terms of themselves as human beings who are involved in their families and communities. The first thing a politician says about somebody in a relationship is not whether he or she is married. There is an intense amount of stereotyping among some people in the political class. They may talk about a person and their children as being determined by their parent's status. That status is defined by many politicians - who do not think about it enough, if I may say so - as being a lone parent. One does not find somebody being characterised as a married or co-habiting person, although one may find people who have been widowed and lost their partner being defined in that sense.

We need to see opportunity spread across society. I personally know many people who at one time or another have parented on their own. They have gone on to get first-class training and education, as Deputy Conaghan said. I would no more dream of characterising them by their relationship status, than I would anybody else. I do not talk about the Deputy's relationship status when I meet him. If he meets me, he does not ask me what my relationship status is.

Opportunity for Ireland is for everybody, including people who parent on their own. It is fundamental for their children to have the same opportunities as the children of people in other relationship situations. Notwithstanding the fact that as a society we spend a lot of money on lone parents, the data shows that it has not always ended joblessness in such households. There are also consequences for such children doing well in school.

We need to change the way we stereotype people because lone parents are the same as every other parent. There are wonderful parents and others that could improve. To simply stereotype somebody on a relationship basis, however, is not helpful to parents or children.

I do not like being told by various social experts that one could almost predict what would happen in a particular household based on the relationship status of the parent or parents. I do not find that socially progressive. Intelligence is equally distributed among the population and opportunity should be also.