Calls to use DNA tests to track runaway fathers

DNA testing should be used to track runaway dads who dodge financial responsibilities for their offspring, a noted academic has said.

Founding president of University of Limerick Dr Ed Walsh said such measures had proven very effective in other countries.

Conceding his views were, at times, politically incorrect, he said irrespective of “whether a community is wealthy or poor, where you have a predominance of lone parents, you have a predominance of crime”.