A conference on fathers' rights was told that an audit of the entire social welfare code will take place to ensure its compatibility with equality legislation, according to Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan who was unable to attend.
However, in a statement read on his behalf to the conference, the Minister said he was "aware that some have questioned a perceived absence of an equality-based structure to a number of income support and other payments made by my department."
The meeting in Castlebellingham, Co Louth was organised by Parental Equality on Sustaining and Supporting Single/ Separated Fathers and their Children. Parental Equality is an organisation supporting the rights of separated and unmarried fathers.
The review will examine the department's schemes and services. Independent consultants will carry out the review, under the nine grounds identified in the Equality Status Acts, including gender, marital and family status. Submissions will be sought from interested parties, including experiences of discrimination.
"Where any differences in treatment are identified, it will assess if these are justified by a legitimate social policy objective, and if the means being used to achieve that objective are necessary or appropriate".
In a pre-recorded audio interview, retired president of the District Court Judge Peter Smithwick said a father could be the home parent and would, in principle, be capable of looking after children, "but the normal assumption is still that the mother is the caring parent".
During the interview with Liam Ó Gogáin of Parental Equality, Judge Smithwick who was not at the conference, said that where a father is seeking custody "he must lay the groundwork of evidence that he can be the carer", with the support of family and the expert evidence of someone like a social worker, and "the court will listen". But "what will put in him in a bad light in court is if he adopts a belligerent attitude in general - 'that you're against me' - that doesn't hold good".
The judge also said "it is a myth that fathers are always ill-treated in court". Asked about enforcement of access orders to allow fathers see their children, Judge Smithwick said he had threatened mothers with jail on many occasions and jailed them on occasion to ensure access.
Irish Times columnist John Waters described separated and unmarried fathers as "this invisible sector in modern Ireland who have been de-humanised by a system that denies its existence". There was a deep sickness in Irish society, "a kind of infanticide" which believed it was a fraudulent idea "that a man could love his children". The system was "like a moving organism, driven by the old culture in which men and women have a particular place". The law "doesn't need changing. It is okay if properly administered, but we are dealing with a deeply cowardly, fearful culture which will savage us to death if we provoke it," he said.
