Absent fathers are compelled by law to support their children

AS a so-called absent father, I was disappointed to read your report headlined ‘State must make absent fathers pay, says SVP’ (December 27), as it contained a number of gender-biased assumptions that are unsubstantiated by the UCD study of young single mothers to which you refer.

Your headline is misleading as the State already requires fathers who are not living with the mothers of their children to pay maintenance for the children’s upkeep.

If a father does not pay such maintenance, the State ensures he does so through the courts and it will provide legal aid to any mother who cannot afford her own legal representation.

You quote the southern regional president of the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP), Brendan Dempsey, as saying “the growing culture of mothers being left on their own and many fathers shirking responsibility for children must be tackled”.

Fathers not involved in their children’s lives are not necessarily “shirking responsibility for children” but might not be aware they actually have children. If a young woman has sexual intercourse with a man she doesn’t know and does not see again, it might well result in a pregnancy that the young man never becomes aware of.

Also, a father may be making cash payments to the mother due to the fact that a single mother on loan parent allowance will have this allowance reduced if she is officially receiving maintenance.

Mr Dempsey urged the Government to put a system in place whereby fathers had to take responsibility of some kind. Would he not think the Government should put a system in place whereby mothers-to-be had to take responsibility of some kind before they became pregnant?

The fact is that fathers who chose not to support their children are forced to do so by the State, and rightly so. Fathers who have not paid the court-ordered maintenance have ended up in jail.

Mr Dempsey says there is a great want in children who do not have both parents and the father needs to “at least make a financial contribution”. This, unfortunately, is the 21st century view of fathers in Ireland where the mother looks after all the needs of the children while he is simply the breadwinner. If the couple split up, in 87% of cases the children continue to live with the mother while the father finds himself another home and maintains the children financially, being allowed to see them occasionally.

Despite all the progress made under equality legislation in other areas, there has been none in relation to marital and family status. Single fathers are still excluded from the lives of their children if the relationship with the mother fails. Married fathers who separate from their wives end up having to leave their home but still maintain their wives.

Both single and separated married fathers have virtually no say in any decisions about their children with all consent forms for medical procedures, school enrolments, etc, requiring only one parental signature. The UCD study referred to is quoted as saying that “while the majority of the women received emotional support from the fathers of their children during pregnancy and immediately after the birth, this contact falls away, with 40% of the women surveyed having no contact with the father of the child”. This is misquoting the actual report which stated that while “almost 40% of the women had daily contact with the father of the child, a similar number had no contact at all”. This inaccurate play on words gives the impression that 40% of fathers who had contact with their babies simply walked away at some later stage whereas the report actually said that almost 40% of the women had daily contact with the father.

There is no reason given for the lack of contact among the other fathers and no mention of the fact that they may not actually know that they are fathers.

Such biased reporting has occurred in the Irish Examiner before and I suggest you publish a similar lengthy article on the failure of the State to ensure that unmarried and separated fathers are involved with their children.

Cathal Garvey

17 Stanley Heights

Slane

Navan

Co Meath