Madam, - It is gratifying to see that the changing nature of family life and what that means for children and parents is again on the social agenda in Ireland. One Family has been working for 35 years to support one-parent families. We were the founding member of the Family Diversity Initiative which was established to achieve an Ireland in which people define their own families and where all these families are treated equally.
Family life comes in many forms. According to the United Nations definition, a family is: "Any combination of two or more persons who are bound together by ties of mutual consent, birth and/or adoption or placement and who together assume responsibility for, inter alia, the care and maintenance of group members, the addition of new members through procreation or adoption, the socialisation of children and the social control of members".
What a wonderful embracing positive definition of family - one that responds to and respects the realities of life for all children and parents. This is in stark contrast to experience of many families in Ireland, where the Constitution protects only the marital family. Recent court cases and our international legal obligations have highlighted the need for the Constitution, Irish law and services to reflect the diverse family forms living in Ireland today.
- Yours, etc,
KAREN KIERNAN, Director, One Family, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin 2.