Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the support the Department has given to Time 4 Us, which plays a huge role in the county. While the Department is developing all the strategies we also need a cross-departmental approach, involving the Departments of Justice and Equality, Education and Skills, Health and Employment Affairs and Social Protection. We have to work to change the language because the language used by all the Departments is a barrier for unmarried parents, and I am speaking specifically about unmarried fathers. They do not realise what rights they do not have until it is too late. This is the information we are struggling to get out to unmarried fathers. They do not realise it until it is far too late that they have no rights. This is why I am asking the Department, with or without a strategy, to work with Departments to enable some of the recent report of the Law Reform Commission to be introduced.

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