The Minister of State for Equality, Mary White has promised to help fathers who are being denied access to their children by their former partners.

She said there was an opportunity to tackle the issue of single fathers’ rights, adding that it was “heart-breaking” meeting these fathers who were unable to see their children, according to an Irish Independent report.

“They are well aware where their own personal relationship cannot be resuscitated but they want to be decent dads to their children,” she said.

Presently, only mothers are given automatic guardianship if a child is born outside marriage. Fathers only have the right to apply for guardianship.

Being made a guardian entitles one to make decisions about the education and overall care and welfare of the child, along with any other person who is appointed or recognised as guardian. It also entitles the guardian to custody of the child as against any other person who is not a guardian.

The Law Reform Commission (LRC) is currently considering whether single fathers should get automatic guardianship rights.

In its consultation paper, Legal Aspects of Family Relationships, published last September, the LRC recommended that there should be statutory presumption that unmarried fathers obtain guardianship rights vis a vis their children.

It also invited submissions on the question of whether “it would be appropriate to introduce automatic guardianship/parental responsibility for all fathers in Ireland”.

Minister White said: “We have to have to have a clear path for access — guardianship or custody or even familial visits of separated and single dads so those visits can be facilitated and not frustrated by a partnership that has been dissolved or that has irretrievably broken down.”

Since being appointed as the Junior Minister for Equality and Integration last May, Ms White said she had been contacted by a number of “grieving fathers” and had visited fathers’ groups such as Families, Fathers & Friends in Galway city.

“There is a well of unhappiness out there. Their stories of the family law courts in Ireland, their quest for access to their children and their despair in many cases have prompted me to consider how we deal with this painful issue,” she said.

And when debating the issue on local radio in her Carlow-Kilkenny constituency, Ms White was also contacted by many grandparents who complained that they were no longer getting access to their sons’ children in the wake of relationship breakdowns.

“It is a real knock-on effect and it strikes at the heart of grandparents’ care and love for their children,” she said.

The Law Reform Commission’s report on its consultation paper is scheduled to be published in the autumn. Ms White said she was determined it would not become just another worthwhile report gathering dust on a shelf.

“There needs to be a level playing pitch in the family courts in Ireland. We can no longer be blind to the rights of single and separated fathers and their children,” she said.