Madam, - I was surprised to read Mary Harney offering the opinion that children may owe their parents a duty of care. There are two possible interpretations of Ms Harney's suggestion. Firstly, that society is based on the family unit. Or secondly, that society is based on the individual, with peoples' children and/or parents constituting a natural extension of themselves.
The former is in accordance with Bunreacht na hÉireann and would, I thought, be anathema to a liberal, socially progressive party like the PDs. It would also be incredibly inconsistent. The last decade and more has seen any residual support for the institution of the family, by the State, emphatically eroded.
The obscene housing boom, inadequate childcare provision and inept development have led to an economic imperative whereby both parents are spending more and more time away from their children. The sundering of the nuclear family has also been compounded by the wholly preventable proliferation of teenage pregnancy.
Meanwhile, there has been no legislation specifically designed to protect, promote and support the family. Even the long overdue incorporation of divorce into our laws has been mishandled. Instead of a civilised and legal separation we have for the most part the destruction of families with the father being generally written out of the picture.
So maybe Ms Harney really meant that society is based on the individual, that individual having a duty to cater for their own needs as well as his or her blood relations' needs. A recognition, therefore, that the State should divest itself of its inopportune and clumsy interference in the lives of its citizens.
The problem with that interpretation is that I am still required to pay an inordinate amount in taxes. More importantly, the generation that preceded my own was forced to give up an even greater portion of their income. What did they, and what will they receive in return? - Yours, etc.,
PAUL BOWLER, Rathnew, Co Wicklow.