Sir, - Unlike the National Women's Council of Ireland (June 5th), we are aghast that the Irish Government has announced its intention to remove its reservations on the CEDAW (Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). Despite its name, CEDAW is itself most unfairly discriminatory against certain women along with their husbands and families. CEDAW are the people who told the Irish Government (and this is an exact quote) that they "consider that the persistence of the emphasis on the role of women as mothers and caregivers. . .constitutes a serious impediment to the full implementation of the Convention." It is truly beyond belief that the NWCI continues to support CEDAW to the hilt, despite such a dismissive attitude to motherhood.
It becomes more worrying to have Grainne Healy make the arrogant claim on behalf of NWCI that has been "the representative voice of Irish women's organisations" for over a quarter of a century. NWCI is really a minority pressure group. Amazingly, it is almost exclusively Government funded - £405,000 this year alone! Among its self-described primary purposes are to lobby Government and to change society's attitudes on gender. It is time for both the Government and bodies such as the NWCI to acknowledge and support home parenting. If the NWCI were truly seeking to represent all women equally it would have opposed the hideous tax individualisation which blatantly discriminates against single-income families. It would also have seen that current proposals regarding State funding of creche facilities discriminate against the very same cash-strapped single-income families - financial assistance is given to help pay the childcare costs of double income families but the children in single income families are left out in the cold! - Yours, etc.,
Brendan and Caitriona Lynch, Wyattville Park, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin.