Minister Mary Hanafin is correct in saying that the One Family Payment is not achieving its goal and all the evidence is that lone parents are more likely than other families to experience poverty, have no incentive to take up full time employment and indeed to form relationships. Even where good relationships exist penalties are incurred as a result of cohabiting.
Children can be hurt by family conflict. It is much better for children if parents can resolve their differences by agreement rather than going to court and this can be particularly challenging for parents who are not married to each other.
“The Government’s proposed Civil Partnership Bill would give de facto marriage rights to cohabiting or same sex couples and should be blocked” says Cardinal Sean Brady.
Treoir calls on the Minister for Education and Science to reverse his decision to withdraw funding from the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (CECDE).
Most lone parents want to engage in the workforce but face many obstacles in doing so, not least, lack of skills and confidence, lack of affordable accessible childcare, loss of secondary benefits such as rent allowance, medical card etc.
“I don’t have a daddy” or “I have a new daddy” can be answers that children make in response to questions regarding their family life. Positive pointers on how to help parents explain the family situation to their chidren are contained in Family Links steps and stages..
17 young mothers and their children were on hand to greet the latest new arrival in the Rotunda Hospital today – the first issue of Treoir’s The Young Parent Survival Guide.