LRC urged abolishing concept of illegitimacy

The Department of the Taoiseach opposed the Law Reform Commission’s recommendation to abolish the concept of illegitimacy and allow the automatic granting of parental and guardianship rights to the children of unmarried parents.

A memo submitted to the government by the department on behalf of then taoiseach Garret FitzGerald said the proposal was “undesirable”, as there were “clearly unmeritorious fathers”, combined with the needs to consider the best interests of the child.

However, FitzGerald backed the recommendation that illegitimate children should enjoy the same succession rights as legitimate children, only subject to safeguards in cases where it might be unfair to widows and legitimate children.

While FitzGerald also backed the extension of parental rights to natural fathers, he felt rapist or incestuous fathers should be excluded from such rights.

His department also expressed concern about the terminology used on the subject and recommended the word “illegitimate” should in future be replaced by “non-marital”.

“We wish to positively diminish the social stigma attaching to illegitimacy and we believe the continued official acceptance and usage of the existing nomenclature is incompassible [sic] with a reforming approach to illegitimacy,” said the department’s secretary.

A memo described the LRC report as “extremely radical in certain respects”.

It claimed the LRC had gone further than any other western democracy by granting joint guardianship to all fathers, with no exemptions made for children conceived by rape.

Government officials also expressed concern about the LRC recommendation that all children should have the power to apply to a court for maintenance, as well as a barring order against either or both parents.