Press release from The Iona Institute

Father’s Day is this Sunday. It’s a day when we appreciate the invaluable contribution fathers up and down the country and all over the world make to their children.

But an increasing number of children are growing up without the active involvement of their fathers in their lives.

Irish Census figures show that 21 percent of children are living in households with only one parent. This adds up to 342,000 children in all.

We don’t know exactly how many of these children have no contact with their fathers, or some contact or regular contact, but we can be sure that tens of thousands of children in Ireland have little or no contact with their fathers. This has real consequences for children.

As President Barack Obama (himself raised by a single parent) said on Father’s Day 2008: “But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing – missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”

Commenting on Father’s Day, Iona Institute Director David Quinn said: “Father’s Day exists for a reason. It exists because fathers play a very valuable and important part in the lives of their children. It gives children and mothers chance to express their appreciation to them.

“But we need to be aware that a huge number of Irish children are growing up with semi-involved or uninvolved fathers. This can happen for multiple reasons, but it means that a huge number of mothers face the task of having to raise their children on their own and that is fair neither on them nor on their children.”

He concluded: “This is why we need to examine why it is that so many children are growing up without an active and engaged father in their lives and what we can do to arrest this growing trend”.

ENDS