JOINT taxation should be considered for cohabiting couples, who are treated less favourably than their married counterparts by the tax system, the Commission on the Family has recommended.
This is one of 13 recommendations in the commission's interim report to the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, which was published yesterday.
Other recommendations include increased funding for groups and voluntary agencies working with families, and the promotion of family friendly initiatives in the workplace.
The 14 member commission was set up in October 1995 to "examine the needs and priorities of families in the fast changing social and economic environment".
It has received 525 submissions from community groups, individuals, families and national and local organisations. The interim report lays out progress to date, identifies a need for a coordinated policy, and makes preliminary recommendations.
These include considering joint taxation for cohabiting couples who have a child living with them most of the time. The report says this is an endorsement of a recommendation by the Expert Group on the Integration of Tax and Social Welfare.
Cohabiting couples are treated as single people under the tax system, the report explains. This means that if one of the partners is out of work, his or her personal tax allowances cannot be transferred to the working partner.
This transfer is normally available to married couples.
The report says the expert group's recommendation was made because a couple on social welfare with a child face a "significant disincentive" in relation to one partner taking up employment.
The report says the commission also considered the situation of young families with both partners working who face demanding child care responsibilities.
"We consider that it is overall in the family's interest that they should have the option of one partner taking time out of the workplace to work full time in the home as other couples have and they should not be treated less favourably under the tax system."
The commission also sets out six principles which it says should guide family policy. They include recognition that the family is a fundamental unit providing stability and well being in society, that there is a diversity of family forms and relationships, and that family membership confers rights, duties and responsibilities.
Speaking at yesterday's publication of the report, Mr De Rossa said there was "no question" that family policy in Ireland needed to be changed. Legislation and structures needed to be changed to give greater support to families.
He said: "Not so long ago the family was regarded as a stateless space, an area where the State did not intervene. This no longer applies. The family cannot be immune from public policy decisions."
He said the challenge was to provide the "right kinds of supports" to families in all their diversity. "The issue is not the abandonment of tradition but rather how we assist families to deal with changing social and economic realities."
Mr De Rossa said he would do his utmost to ensure that the report "evokes the response at policy level it deserves".
The commission is due to prepare a final report for the Government by next June.
The National Women's Council of Ireland welcomed publication of the report, but has expressed "regret" that its recommendations do not "have clear timetables for implementation".
Ms Noreen Byrne, council chairwoman, expressed concern that the report emphasised measures which involved the unpaid or "inadequately resourced work of women".