A short-term emergency allowance should be made available to teenage mothers to encourage them to return to education and training, a report to an Oireachtas committee has recommended.
The recommendation is part of a report on teenage parenting issues presented yesterday to the Joint Committee on Family, Community and Social Affairs. Prepared by Ms Frances Fitzgerald TD (FG), it also recommends the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment should ensure all pregnant adolescents and teenage parents who want to participate in education and training should be facilitated, regardless of age, by next year.
Another report, based on data from 1997, found almost half of lone parents have no formal education, or have only primary education. The Oireachtas report recommends a scheme be introduced in each county by 2002 to offer support to teenage parents. The issue of suitable accommodation for teenage mothers should also be identified.
Guidelines on the care of pregnant and parenting teenagers should be prepared by the Department of Education, the report says. Flexible education arrangements should also be made available for pregnant teenagers in school. A committee to monitor the effective implementation of Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in all schools should be established, it suggests.
Young mothers, it adds, should be encouraged by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs to name the father of their child on the birth certificate. The committee heard the number of teenagers who give birth has not changed appreciably since the introduction of social welfare payments. In 1973, the number of births to women under 20 was 3,048. In 1999, the number had increased to 3,165. The report noted, however, the difference is the circumstances in which the women give birth.
During the 1970s, the majority of the teenagers were married. Today, the majority remain single. Teenage women who give birth are now more likely to be "part of a culture of social deprivation" and to be "excluded from mainstream society", Ms Fitzgerald said.
Teenage mothers are more likely, the report notes, to live in poverty, not finish their education, have no career plans and poor social support.
The report says the factors contributing to high teenage conception rates in the State, which include lack of openness about sex in Irish society, restrictions in teaching about birth control in schools and restriction in teenagers' access to contraception.
The number of teenage women reported to have had abortions in the UK has increased from a rate of 0.2 per 1,000 teenagers in 1970 to a rate of 4.6 in 1996, the committee was told.