Marital breakdown has increased sixfold in Ireland since 1986, a new report published today by the Iona Institute has shown.

In addition, there has been a huge increase in the number of children being raised outside marriage with the number now standing at over 456,000 of which 305,000 are under 18.

The report, Marriage Breakdown and Family Structure in Ireland shows that at the time of Census 2011, 246,924 adults had been through a separation or divorce, compared to 40,347 in 1986.

In 1986, 12.8pc of children were being raised outside marriage, but by 2011, this had risen to 28.1pc, which compares with some of the highest rates in the OECD.

Cohabitation has also increased dramatically, according to the report. These couples weren’t even recorded in 1986, but by 1996 there were 31,296 cohabiting households, and this had increased to 143,600 by 2011, a more than fourfold increase.  

Commenting on the report for The Iona Institute, Professor Patricia Casey said: “These findings show that the family in Ireland is changing very rapidly and in ways we should be concerned about.  

“According to Census 2011, almost 250,000 Irish adults have separated or divorced. Whatever the reasons for the breakup of these marriages, there is a lot of pain behind these figures both for the men and women themselves and for any children who may be involved.”

She continued: “A figure we should be particularly concerned about is the 300,000 children under 18 now being raised outside marriage. The great majority of these are in lone parent, chiefly lone mother families.

“What this highlights is what the changing Irish family in practice means in many cases, namely an ever growing number of children growing up with either a semi-involved or uninvolved father, and a growing number of mothers having to raise their children on their own, or with the help of relatives and friends to compensate for the absent father.

“At bottom, therefore, the debate about the changing Irish family is a debate about how highly we value fatherhood and how we can connect more fathers to their children.”

She concluded: “Historically and in every known society, marriage has always been our best way of doing this. Marriage connects children to their fathers more reliably than anything else we know. As marriage weakens in Ireland, therefore, so does the connection between father and child”.  

“We need to have a much more robust and sustained debate about this very worrying development and policy-makers need to wake up to the fact that marriage is indeed weakening in Ireland, especially in disadvantaged communities.”