Parenting has long been viewed as a private family issue where public policy has no place. This is particularly true in Ireland, where the rights of the marital family are enshrined in the Constitution and take precedence over individual members such as children. Yet, within Europe there is a growing recognition that policies are needed to support parenting, family life and family diversity, writes Karen Kiernan
The European Ministers for Family Affairs recent meeting in May 2006 stated that: "Parenting, though linked to family intimacy, should be designated as a domain of public policy and all the necessary measures should be adopted for supporting parenting and creating the conditions necessary for positive parenting . . . and labour market and family policies should recognise the preferences of people for reconciling work and parenthood."
As the importance of family life and the crucial role of parenting continue to grow as key issues across Europe, it is clear that concerns about the ability to successfully parent and raise children are of increasing relevance in Ireland today.
Many Irish parents are all too familiar with the conflicting challenges of balancing work, family life, parenting and long commutes in an environment of limited access to quality, affordable childcare and other supports.
The recent social partnership agreement has made a move in the right direction by stating that priority will be given to "putting in place enhanced policies to support families in a changing society and in particular to ensure that policies are designed to promote family formation and family life".
While the growing interest in parenting and family policy is very welcome, as we will show later, international evidence indicates that policies aimed primarily at supporting economic growth must actively complement family and parenting policies. In particular, all new policies must consider possible knock-on effects in terms of reducing the real choices available to parents to effectively balance parenting and work. This is particularly important for low-income families.
The Government's proposals to reform State support for one-parent families represent a real opportunity to put supportive parenting and family policies into practice. However, the proposals as currently outlined give cause for concern. For low-income families, parenting will no longer be seen as a valid career and family choice after children reach the age of eight.
One Family's members are concerned that the proposed changes in policy are being actively pursued without fully exploring their potential effect on the children in such families, or on Irish society as a whole. They may also contravene the stated priority in the social partnership agreement.
Evidence from other countries that have embarked on similar policies gives us an idea of the effect such policies can have on those parenting alone. A recent article on the impact of the new employment strategy in Norway concluded that what was intended to achieve a better life for one-parent families actually resulted in putting more pressure on already hard-pressed families (Syltevik, Community, Work and Family, Vol 9). Similar policy changes in Japan and the United States suggest that: "The Japanese experience shows that work of itself does not necessarily facilitate independence from state assistance.
"Even though Japanese policies have led to a worker participation rate as high as 87 per cent, they have, in the course of 40 years, not been able to raise lone mothers' incomes much beyond the poverty line. Welfare user rates in the Unites States illustrate similar trends. Even though work participation rates among lone mothers have been increasing, they have only increased demand for support for the working poor.
"Thus, even though rising work participation rates have been held up as a sign of success of welfare reforms, they have also generated new areas of concern which are likely to preoccupy policy-makers for some time." (Lone Mothers and Welfare to Work: Policies in Japan and the United States: Towards an Alternative Perspective, Ezawa and Fujiwara, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, December 2005).
It is clear that policies around employment and education will never be fully effective unless they are built on the premise that those who parent perform a vital role in a successful and harmonious society.
We must ensure that all parents have the basic right and choice to parent in the way they see as in the best interests of their children and their family.
We believe that the obligatory engagement of some parents in the labour market requires a broader debate in Ireland about how we value and support the work of parenting.
Ireland is at an important point in its history, where decisions can be made to implement policies that will "cherish all the children of the nation equally". We can take the path towards enlightened family-work policies, or we can create situations in which children in certain families are further disadvantaged. Other countries are already beginning to see the failure of policies that do not adequately address ongoing poverty and social exclusion among one-parent families, and whose effect can increase pressures on already vulnerable families.
On a day when 100 solo parents graduate from our parenting and adult education courses in Dublin Castle, and look to a future where they can balance their parenting role with education or employment, we urge the Government to truly value the work of parenting so that children in one-parent families will indeed be cherished equally.
Karen Kiernan is the director of One Family (formerly Cherish) which represents one-parent families