Supporting Families and Children

The needs and wellbeing of children must be given priority in all policy relating to the family.

Much comment has been passed on the shifting sands of Irish family life – increased marriage breakdown, the decline of the traditional two-parent family model, the increase in single parent families, the claims of people with same-sex attractions to rights and privileges traditionally reserved to marriage, the behavioural and adjustment problems faced by many children, teenage binge drinking etc.

Because of the sensitivities involved, there is a great reluctance among policymakers to ask the hard questions about what type of family forms should be promoted in th