Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not see any significant difference between duty and responsibility. What was the reason for changing it?

Much of this goes to the heart of the welfare of children. In a paper I prepared recently, I pointed to research which showed children in a married family fare better in a whole range of areas than children in other different family units. Senator Norris reminded me the greatest risk for a child is where his or her mother cohabits with an non-biological father. Statistics from research in Britain shows children in such a unit are 33 times more likely to be abused and 73 times more likely to suffer fatal abuse. If we are really committed to children, we need to underpin the married family unit between a man and a woman as fundamental to the welfare of the children. This debate has focused on that considerably.