TDs and child support groups yesterday criticised comments by Irish Times columnist, Kevin Myers, that the welfare system was encouraging unmarried mothers to live off State benefits.
Mr Myers wrote in his Irishman's Diary yesterday that the system was creating "benefits addicted and fatherless families".
At yesterday's Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs, sections of the article were read out in which Mr Myers questioned how many teenage mothers embarked upon a "career of mothering bastards" because of the State benefits and accommodation available.
Committee chairman, Mr Willie Penrose TD (Labour), said Mr Myers' comments did not reflect reality.
"I find that there is a tremendous burden on lone parents," he said. "The people who write these articles should take the opportunity to find out what is happening on the ground," he said.
Senator Sheila Terry of Fine Gael said she "condemned" Mr Myers' comments, as well as those of Dr Edward Walsh, president emeritus of the University of Limerick, who delivered a speech last week criticising the welfare regime for parents.
"Comments like these do nothing to help children or parents who are trying to make ends meet. Women are always the butt of these comments, but for every woman, there is a father as well," she said.
Speaking at the Oireachtas committee, Ms Naomi Feely, research and information officer with OPEN (One Parent Exchange and Network), said figures showed teenagers accounted for 2.3 per cent of one-parent families.
"It's important that people's opinions on this subject are based on fact. If 90 per cent of lone parents were teens, you would have a point," she said. She added that it was important to realise that 15 per cent of one-parent families were fathers.
Mr Dáithí Downey, policy analyst with Focus Ireland, also said the comments stigmatised lone parents.
An alliance of support groups for children, The End Child Poverty coalition, also set out a seven-point strategy to tackle child poverty. It called for increases in child benefit, a new second tier of child income support for families living in poverty and increases in medical card eligibility levels. It also said sufficient funding was needed for social and affordable housing, tackling educational disadvantage and "move-on" accommodation for homeless children and families.
