Remarks by ex-UL head deemed 'hurtful'

Lone-parent organisations have reacted with "alarm" and "anger" to a suggestion that welfare payments encouraged women to become single mothers.

They also described the assertion by the president emeritus of the University of Limerick, Dr Edward Walsh , that "social breakdown" was associated with an increase in lone parenthood as "hurtful".

In a speech to be delivered next week, Dr Walsh says the State provides "very real financial incentives" that "may actively encourage the formation of lone-parent families".

He points to the increase in the number of lone-parent families from fewer than 3,000 in 1975 to about 80,000 now.

The State is far better at looking after lone parents than it was 30 years ago, he says.

However, "the support the State provides may have moved further than it should: very real financial incentives are now in place that may actively encourage the formation of lone-parent families".

His comments were described as "offensive" by Ms Anne Bowen, policy officer with the One Family organisation.

"The lone-parent payment is €148.80 a week, plus €19.30 per child. That amount of money is not going to make anyone rich.

"It is a hard life, and anyone who would choose to live on that would have a very low sense of self-esteem."

She said it was extremely hurtful to suggest that women would choose single parenthood for financial gain, "or that they would put themselves before their children".

Even putting this aside, she said the figures did not back up this argument.

The cost of childcare combined with the loss of payments if a lone parent took up employment meant that many lone parents found themselves "trapped" in their situation.

Reacting to Dr Walsh's assertion that lone parents could be in receipt of up to €20,000 a year in benefits, she said this was less than half the average income.

She added that lone-parent families were identified by the CSO this week as the ones at greatest risk of both relative and consistent poverty.

Ms Frances Byrne, director of the One Parent Exchange Network (OPEN), called on Mr Walsh to withdraw his comments. "It is highly worrying that someone of Dr Walsh's prominence should be raising questions about Irish society based on uninformed and inaccurate myths about one-parent families".

Dr Walsh says in his speech: "Much research has been conducted on the cause of social breakdown and, while it may be politically incorrect to highlight it, many studies associate high levels of substance abuse, rape, child abuse and other unpleasant social phenomena with the growth of lone-parent families."

Ms Bowen said it was intellectually lazy to infer a relationship between more lone parenthood and wider social changes.