A support group for grandparents denied access to their grandchildren says it has received 2,500 inquiries in the past two years. Grand Parents Obliterated (GPO) says the relationship between paternal grandparents and grandchildren all too often ends when a marriage breaks down.
"Because one parent, usually the mother, is given custody of the children she can now decide who will have access to the children," an article in Parental Equality News states.
The newsletter is published by Parental Equality, a group which presses for greater access rights for separated fathers and for joint custody to be made the norm when couples separate.
The grandparents' support group is based in Parental Equality's Middle Abbey Street, Dublin, premises.
The group argues that paternal grandparents lose contact with their grandchildren when mothers are given sole custody.
"The children are not only traumatised by the split-up of their own parents but also by the loss of their grandparents and other relations," it says.
It notes that the Children's Bill provides for grandparents and other relatives to apply to the courts for access.
The newsletter is also critical of State institutions for failing to help two groups of separated parents. The first is fathers who are denied reasonable access to their children. The second is mothers who cannot persuade absent fathers to become involved with their children.
"No one in authority will do anything to force the reluctant fathers to fulfil their parental responsibilities properly other than to order them to pay maintenance, which is then offset against social welfare payments," it says. "Nor will the State do anything to assist the fathers who try to fulfil their parental responsibilities fully in extremely difficult circumstances."
Parental Equality argues that the courts should be obliged to grant joint custody in separation and divorce cases save where exceptional circumstances warrant giving sole custody to one parent.