AS a rule, the Department of Social Welfare does not pursue absent fathers (whose absence often extends to the birth certificate), except in the case of marital separation. Even here, the Department's approach is a softly, softly one, and as in many other welfare issues, the State is endeavouring to learn from mistakes made across the Irish Sea.
Britain's notorious Child Support Agency had to apologise for its aggressive tactics in 1994, after a flood of criticism about pursuing the wrong people and in one case driving a man to suicide.
Eighteen months on it has swung to the other extreme, according to James Pirrie, a London solicitor specialising in the area. "The fathers and they are almost all fathers, sadly, were such a vocal and angry lobby that the powers that be overreacted. The levels of maintenance are probably too low now and the process is still incredibly slow. Also enforcement is dire, with something like £700 million in unpaid assessments."
But while the CSA remains bogged down in what he calls a "horrendous, alienating bureaucracy", it still at least starts out from an aggressive position. Every child is deemed to have a father, regardless of what the birth certificate says, and the state is bound to find him. DNA tests can be used in the process, and for all its low enforcement rates the agency is raking in some £500 million a year in family support.
By contrast, Minister of State Bernard Durkan told the Dail last October that while the State was paying £270 million a year to 60,000 lone parents and deserted wives, only £300,000 was being officially contributed by way of family upkeep, by a total of 232 absent parents.
Paul Wilson, who is responsible for the Department of Social Welfare's four person maintenance chasing unit in Sligo, admits that collection has been on a "vastly smaller scale" here.
"We believe in establishing the principle of maintenance first and then gradually stepping up the pace. Having said that, we will be getting more serious about it in the near future, certainly. We're hoping to have some extra staff and we'll probably be testing cases in court for the first time within the next six months or a year.
