asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will consider changing the unmarried mothers' allowance to provide for single parents as distinct from unmarried mothers and so remove this area of discrimination against unmarried fathers.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unmarried Mothers' Allowances.
43.
The scheme of unmarried mothers' allowances was designed to meet the specific need for assistance in the case of those unmarried mothers who wished to keep their babies rather than have them adopted. I do not agree that this represents any discrimination against unmarried fathers.
I realise that the income limits set on it effectively make what the Minister has said true. I am more concerned with the principle involved. There are some cases where fathers wish to keep their children and some form of financial assistance should be made available to them to this end. If he is not married he may have to pay somebody to look after the child. I am aware of one or two cases in my constituency where this has happened. While great steps forward have been taken in the area of removing discrimination, this improvement could be made by simply changing the phraseology from "unmarried mothers" to "single parents".
I also have such a case in my constituency. I prefer the term "single parent", but there are some other considerations involved which I will be looking at.
Is the Minister giving the House an assurance that he will look at it?
Yes.