Call for parent tracing service in unmarried cases

ADULTS who were born outside of marriage need a service to help them find their fathers, Treoir, the national federation for unmarried parents and their children said yesterday.

Over the summer, Treoir alerted parents through an advertising campaign of their children’s need to know both parents.

The organisation, which yesterday celebrated its 30th anniversary, received around 900 calls and “a small but significant number” were from adults who wanted to trace a parent, usually the father, said Treoir chief executive Margaret Dromey.

While there were services to help adopted children find their parents, no such service existed for children of unmarried parents.

“Our campaign identified a need to have a tracing service to be available for children born outside of marriage,” said Ms Dromey. “Sometimes it is difficult for the child to raise the issue with the mother because the subject is very painful for her.”

And, she said, the need for such a service would increase with more children being born outside marriage.

An unmarried father has no automatic legal right to his children in the same way a married father has.

Currently, almost one-in-four children do not live in a household with both their biological parents and most live with their mother.

Ms Dromey said many unmarried fathers either lose contact with or never develop a relationship with their child.

They may do this to avoid conflict with the child’s mother, particularly if she has a new partner, or because she is upset if he is in a new relationship.

Treoir believes that parents should at least ensure that the father’s name is on the birth certificate as the absence of the name hinders a child from developing his or her identity.

“We know that parents want to do their best for their children but sometimes their own anger towards each other gets in the way.”

Ms Dromey said they wanted parents to try and focus on what was in their child’s best interest.