Young mothers - The price of our sexual liberation

Naas Town councillor Darren Scully of Fine Gael has sparked controversy by suggesting some single girls are getting pregnant in order to get local authority houses.

He thinks the percentage is small but he believes they are doing so because of the current housing difficulties. Having a child out of wedlock actually enhances their chances of getting a house.

People are awarded social housing on a points system, and a single person with a small child gets preferential points. Reviewing local social housing applications, Councillor Scully noted that 118 of the 269 applicants were single females with a child.

A young woman told him recently that she had got pregnant so that she could get a council house. She said got the idea from friends who told her that they got houses after deliberately getting pregnant.

Of course, such accounts are anecdotal and may not be representative of many people, but the whole issue demonstrates the need for proper research. The councillor should be commended for raising the issue.

Even if only a minuscule percentage are getting deliberately pregnant in order to improve their chances of getting a house, the issue should not be ignored. It clearly needs to be debated.

Maybe the story only applies to very few people, but no system should encourage such irresponsibility. If councils provided more affordable housing it would lessen demand and hence the danger that some people would take such drastic action to get preference on the housing list.

There probably are some young people in over-crowded, broken homes, for which pregnancy looked like an escape route. Most of them would be jumping from the proverbial frying pan into the fire, but they only find that out after it is too late.

During the 1997 general election campaign Mary Harney stirred up a hornets’ nest when she suggested that single pregnant women should be encourage to stay with their families rather than seek a house from the state with subsidised rent.

This country has undergone a virtual social revolution in recent years. Having a child out of wedlock would once have stigmatised a woman, but that attitude has mercifully changed.

Nevertheless the breakdown of sexual mores comes at a price.

The Well Woman Centre in Dublin has, for instance, highlighted the needs for more screening facilities for chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection that can lead to infertility. The centre reported that 20% of the women under 20 attending its north Dublin clinic tested positive last year, while the rate for those attending the clinic in the more affluent south Dublin was 9%.

We ignore the problems of recreational sex at our peril. These matters highlight the need for proper education and cultivating a responsible attitude.