Dr. Ruth Barrington:

Our difficulty with the provisions of the Child and Family Relationships Act is that automatic guardianship is provided for if the unmarried father has lived with the mother of the child for three months before the child is born. At a very practical level, many young couples with low incomes who have a child have never lived together because they have no place to live together; she is with her family and he is with his family. As a result, there is no question of that applying. Even if they lived together, there is no formal registration of that guardianship because they can only be established through a statutory registration which is the property of one or both parents, but is not a public document; it is not a public record. At a more fundamental level, we have a problem with that provision because, essentially, the criterion for guardianship is the relationship between the mother and the father - the three months cohabitation - not the relationship of the father to the child as would be the case if they were married. We believe this is a deep injustice which should be rectified.

In the normal course of events, guardianship for unmarried fathers should kick in if they sign the birth register. People may ask questions about domestic violence. Domestic violence exists for married couples as well as for unmarried couples. That should not be a criterion for denying a father guardianship rights over the child. If there is abuse of those rights, then of course they should be removed, but the assumption should be that the father is the guardian of his child whether married or unmarried. Treoir would like to see the law changed to recognise that right of unmarried fathers.