Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2004
119 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if her attention has been drawn to comments by a leading sociology professor (details supplied) at a recent EU conference in Dublin; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17710/04]
View answerThe statement in question was made in a wide-ranging paper presented at the international conference organised and hosted by the Irish Presidency, with the support of the European Commission, entitled Families, Change and European Social Policy. One of the family-related changes identified in the paper concerns the growing proportion of couples living together as partners, without entering into marriage and assuming the legal obligations to each other which marriage involves.
Generally up to the recent past, a couple, having decided they wished to have a permanent relationship, would get married and soon afterwards have children. Now, a growing proportion of couples live together on a permanent basis but may postpone marriage indefinitely. Undertaking the responsibilities and obligations of having children becomes a separate decision and some couples may decide to forgo taking on parenting responsibilities given the effect it may have on their lives. This is the disjuncture between partnership and parenting referred to in the paper.
Changes made in regard to gender equality and for safeguarding the rights of children and promoting good parenting themselves make, and will continue to make, a major contribution to individual well-being and quality of life generally. They present, however, new challenges to be addressed in promoting social inclusion and greater social cohesion.
Marriage is now seen by some as unduly restrictive on individual freedom. This may have been in part due to the emphasis in much public debate in recent years on marital breakdown, separation and divorce. There has not been the same emphasis on the extent to which the obligations of marriage can safeguard basically healthy and life-enhancing relationships, especially through difficult periods, provide for individual security and family stability generally and provide a secure emotional environment for the upbringing of children.
The State recognises the pressures that marriage and partnerships generally are under and one of the main tasks of the Family Support Agency, which I formally established last year, is to address these. This includes supporting the provision of counselling to assist couples in overcoming difficulties in their relationships. It also includes a nationwide family mediation service to help couples who decide to separate to come to appropriate arrangements in a constructive, amicable manner on living separately, especially in relation to the custody and access to their children.
Parenting emerged as an issue of major concern for many of those who attended the family fora which I held last year. People are conscious of the scale of the responsibility involved in rearing children in ways that will enable them to succeed in today's world and of all the pitfalls to be avoided. As a result many parents are seeking more guidance and support in regard to effective parenting. There is also a need in this context to place emphasis on the joys as well as the problems associated with parenting and provide much reassurance to parents as to their own innate capacities in this regard.
There will be a role for the Family Support Agency, the health boards and other relevant organisations in ensuring the provision of such parental support. These issues, together with many others related to families and family life identified at the conference and at the public consultation fora, will be addressed in the strategy for supports to families, currently being prepared, which I intend to have available before the end of this year.
