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A REVIEW OF Ireland’s civil laws may make it compulsory to include a father’s details on a birth certificate, the Department of Social Protection has confirmed.
A report in yesterday’s Sunday Times said the government was taking legal advice on the move, ahead of a decision being made on whether to includ a provision in an update to Ireland’s current laws on civil registrations.
Today a spokesman for the Department confirmed that the matter was being considered – but added that the government’s final decision could depend on the advice of parliamentary counsel.
“Work is continuing on this, and other aspects of civil registration, and it is intended to publish an amendment bill this year,” the spokesman said.
“It is not possible at this point to say when the bill will be published or what precisely it will contain as there are many stages in the legislative process to be gone through yet.”
Sohail Butt of the Families, Fathers and Friends group said the proposal was welcomed but it would only address “a tiny aspect of the problems with family law” – which could only be truly reformed by the creation of specialised family law courts.
The introduction of such a court system would ensure that well-meaning fathers were not kept from their children – sometimes for up to a year at a time – while paternity and DNA tests were ordered, he said.
Butt said he had engaged with some men who had been driven to suicide as a result of inadequate legal systems which meant they did not have access to their children for sustained periods.
The Law Reform Commission had proposed the establishment of such courts as far back as 1982, he said, but no government had ever acted up on the recommendation.
Irish law does not currently require a father’s details to be included in the birth certificate, though married parents would routinely include both details. There are a number of options for unmarried parents to register a child’s parental details if they so wish.
The formal register of births only records the names of the child and its mother, however.
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I don’t understand why these anti choice loons aren’t arrested for harassment and/or trespassing? If it was any other group of people they would be reprimanded but because its”pro life”they get away with it?! Why are they being tolerated and getting preferential treatment?!
I fully agree Amanda, it’s not fair to drive a person from their home. Arrests should be made.
Anti-abortion zealots.
Interesting that An Garda Siochana apparently told him that they were unable to guarantee his security. That has yet to be verified but, if it is true,
Then it is shocking.
Of course, you could not risk an escalation by arresting an anti abortion activist. That would cause mayhem.
As we curtail all of the social, practical and economic supports for pregnant women, we concern ourselves with legislation.
What those pro life nuts did is terrorism. Ireland does not negotiate with terrorists.
#7 My water pressure is already ridiculously low. Does that mean I won’t have to pay?!
same here mary, not only is our water pressure low the water is full of limescale, have to de-scale our kettle every week (using lemon juice overnight , it’s much safer than chemical descalers and you only need rinse out the kettle once next morning.) ourshower head has to be done eery couple of weeks and we gave up on electric kettles ,they only lasted a month before the limescale rotted them, out emersionelement is replaced every 12 months too otherwise it blows all the fuses. we used to getgreatpressure here untill about3 yrs ago when the council replacedthe water meteres since then its been inconsistent to say the least, only hopewhen they replace the meteres this time they do the job properly for a change.
meanwhile the youth defence website has been hacked :)
Anti-choice terrorist filthbags up to their old tricks again. Check out what they’re saying now! http://www.youthdefence.ie/index.html
They have to be mentally unstable.
It does not make sense to me why these pro life people are protesting. Isn’t the sole purpose of this legislation to clarify the x case ruling in the courts 20+ years. And the TDs that want to get the suicide clause removed! That’s the whole point of the legislation! Removing that would totally defeat the purpose of passing it at all!
Derek Keating one of the local pillars of the Catholic Church in Lucan, considering he is a Eucharistic Minister there I’m surprised the pro-aborts are so defenisive of him & concerned for his wellbeing.
We’re concerned for his well-being because he’s a living human being, and not a cluster of cells that are a potential threat to a woman’s life.
What he does in his spare time is his own business.
What’s not surprising is that you and your youth defense ilk don’t really seem to care about actual living people.
Yeah, your Facebook page isn’t too private.
What irony, a practising Catholic being harrassed and threatened by anti-abortion people. This legislation is for the whole of Ireland. TD’s have a duty to legislate according to the will of the people. Micheal Martin in allowing a free vote allowed TD’s in his party to evade their parliamentary duty.
#3 the domestic violence link is not working
Hmm, it seems to be working ok at this end. I’ll push a few buttons and see if something needs to be fixed.
have your say