The Constitution is "doing a lot of damage to family life", the founder of the first lone-parent support organisation in the State has said.
Maura Richards, who founded the Cherish organisation (now One Family) in 1972, was speaking at a conference organised by the Family Support Agency in Dublin yesterday.
Ms Richards, who now works as a child psychologist in Britain, said the constitutional definition of the family was too narrow and not working due to its failure to recognise the diversity of family life.
The pre-eminence the Constitution placed on the married two-parent family created a hierarchy of family types, producing a climate where it was permissible to talk of lone-parents as "backward, lazy and unmotivated", she said. This created a climate where unmarried mothers were not supported to lift themselves and their children out of poverty.
"It seems to me women and children are always fair game," she added.
While the introduction of the unmarried mothers' allowance had marked a huge step forward in 1973, "the problem is that the allowance has never been enough for these parents and their children".
Ms Richards said the lone-parent allowance continued to be a poverty income. It is €148.80 per week, plus €19.30 per child.
"Of course, we need a debate about benefits and resources, but it's the same story with all marginalised groups. If the circumstances for failure are embedded in the system, failure will happen."
Mothers and children dependent on welfare were portrayed as scroungers, yet the orthodox discourse was that all children must be cherished.
"There's a schizophrenia about children and women," Ms Richards said.
The greatest deprivation, which crossed all socio-economic groups, was the dearth of parenting skills. "Parenting is more difficult than ever. The whole business of parenting has become incredibly complex," she said.
Children's lives were governed by neuroses and they were no longer permitted to play, explore, cycle or climb trees alone. It was healthy for children to have a healthy scepticism of adults, "and be gone, exploring." But there was no way they could do that now. They were under constant scrutiny.
