All fathers should have ‘automatic’ parental responsibility

ALL FATHERS, not just married parents, should have automatic parental responsibility for their children, the Equality Authority has recommended.

The authority is calling for greater recognition for the variety of families in which Irish children are being parented nowadays as part of a submission to the Law Reform Commission’s Consultation Paper on Legal Aspects of Family Relationships.

It wants unmarried fathers to have statutory guardianship rights but it is also seeking rights for adults who play a de facto parenting role in children’s lives – such as biological parents’ new spouses and civil spouses.