Ms Karen Kiernan:

As well as being chair of the National One Parent Family Alliance, I am also CEO of One Family. We have been delivering a range of family supports to people around the country for 50 years. It is absolutely proven in research that a positive strengths-based approach to family support and parenting support is what works. Some countries in Europe have tried to move away from this conditional Big Brother approach to parenting because, ultimately, what you are doing is punishing children. Parents consistently do the best they can. Sometimes they fail and need State supports to help them. We do not always have those available in Ireland. Many people are dealing with childhood trauma, abuse in their childhood and ongoing domestic violence and abuse. There are many issues. They are not all poverty related; some are, but some very high-income families also engage in abusive behaviours towards children. What we need to do as a country is adopt a strengths-based approach to supporting children and their parents.