Unmarried fathers should have guardianship rights to their children, the Law Reform Commission said today.Some 27 years after a similar overhaul of family law was first proposed, the commission has called for legal parental responsibility to be extended to men.
It proposed a raft of reforms allowing fathers day-to-day care and contact with their children, bringing Ireland into line with most of Europe. But it stopped short of suggesting automatic rights, claiming this would give rapists and sex offenders access.
Raymond Byrne, the commission’s head of research, said fathers should be given improved rights unless it’s not in the child’s best interests.
“It is something which people, lawyers involved in family law, probably have not moved forward enough,” he said. “I think there’s a sense that there has not been sufficient movement.”
The commission has also suggested a change in the language used in family law; custody would become day-to-day care, access would change to contact, and guardianship to parental responsibility.
“Instead of talking about guardianship, for example ‘I’m the guardian, I’m the owner’, it’s more about responsibility and rights of the parent,” Mr Byrne said. “The language used was from the 19th century, and while it’s not quite talking about children as a piece of property, it could be changed.”
The Un-Married and Separated Fathers of Ireland (USFI) today welcomed the commission’s consultation paper. It called on the Government “to urgently implement constitutional legislation to bring the current outdated family law system in line with our society’s requirements”.
At present, there are no legal obligations to give an unmarried man rights and access to his children under Irish law.
At birth the unmarried father’s name does not have to be put on the birth certificate. About a fifth of couples leave the name blank. The commission said many unmarried couples wrongly feared it would affect rights to social welfare and the vast majority add the father’s name within a year of the birth.
A White Paper on the proposed reforms could be ready in 18 months and submissions are being invited over the coming weeks and months.
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