Lonely days for fathers cut off from children
The Amen helpline is once again being inundated with calls from men who have been forced to leave their homes and are cut off from their children.
The Government has enacted legislation on marriage breakdown which invariably results in men losing the right to reside in their own homes through no fault of their own.
It is scandalous that, under section 10 of the Family Law Act 1995, a man can be ordered out of his home simply to facilitate his wife’s desires, but neither the courts nor the State are obliged to make any provision for his future accommodation needs or his parenting role.
Many of these men will spend this Christmas sleeping in vans, cars and on couches in friends’ houses, etc. Their living conditions are bad enough, but it is the emotional pain of being cut off from their children which is unbearable for them especially at this time of year.
Frank McGlynn
Amen
St Anne’s Resource Centre
Railway Street
Navan
Co Meath
