It is a step too far to obliterate the rights of a biological mother

THERE are two distinct tracks in the Family and Child Relationship Bill which will be debated next week in the Dáil. They are going in two different directions, writes Victoria White.

The first track is about extending guardianship rights to significant people in a child’s life, whether they be an unmarried biological father and partner or a grandmother or a mother’s female partner. The Bill also allows a same-sex couple to adopt as a couple rather than pretending one of them is adopting as a single person.

This is all about recognising reality rather than changing it. The Government and every advocacy agency has been told to spin the legislation as providing for “modern” families because Irish people like to think of themselves as modern and friendly to diversity. But I don’t believe today’s families are really much more diverse than families ever were, particularly in working-class communities. My own grandmother was really the child of her supposed elder sister though her guardians were her grandparents. Her biological father was an “X” on her birth certificate.