Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I wish to refer to Senator Cummins's point on the proposal by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. I am a member of the All-Party Committee on the Constitution, the majority report of which proposed that the protection of women in the home would be extended to parents. I support the idea that it should also be extended to carers. The Women in the Home group, when it addressed the committee during the hearings, was also supportive of the idea and proposed a wording in that regard. It was of the belief that the existing protection was there to stay but that it would be a good idea to extend it.

I draw attention to two current campaigns, one by the group Treoir and the other by the Teen Parents Support Programme, which was reported in The Irish Times today. National co-ordinator Margaret Morris is reported as stating "it is in the best interest of children to be in touch with both parents", which ties in with the campaign by Treoir, which has a similar belief. That is an important issue with regard to the rights of the child. I firmly believe that, where at all possible, we should support the idea of both parents having contact with their children. The report in The Irish Times today noted that only 51% of fathers are in contact with the mother of their child.

The Minister commissioned a report, Strengthening Families Through Fathers, by Fergus Hogan of the Waterford Institute of Technology. The report found that in many respects fathers are excluded, often on the basis of their appearance, by child care and family support workers. It particularly singled out younger marginalised men who became fathers as being most at risk and yet the most invisible category. The report stated:

At its worst, the underlying assumption seems to be that families are better off without such fathers because they are invariably irresponsible and uninterested...marginalised men are officially written out of the script of family life.

The report made a number of recommendations, which I support, on the need to include fathers in our culture and the way they are dealt with through the social welfare system.

Senator Cox referred to the need for fathers to take up their responsibilities yet we do not give them their rights and they are discriminated against within our legal system. Some 30% of births are to unmarried parents but most of the fathers will not have guardianship rights to their children. Other legal codes, such as that in Scotland, refer to rights and responsibilities. We must do more in this regard because our legal system is pushing fathers away. We need to extend guardianship rights to unmarried fathers, a measure that is being considered in other jurisdictions. Even the North of Ireland has extended guardianship rights for fathers much further than we have.

The system is pushing fathers away and does not value them as part of the child's family life. One way to change this is to change our laws and systems. The report commissioned by the Minister focused on changing the social welfare system, social work system and family support system to include fathers. We also need to change our laws. I called for this last week in the Seanad and I emphasise that it needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. If the law was challenged in the courts, it might be found to be discriminatory and in need of change.