Letter
to the Editor Magill Magazine
Harry
McGee
3-7 Camden Place
Dublin 2
17th May 2000
Dear Editor
I read with interest the
Damien Coreless/Declan Shanahan article entitled "Doomed
Youth" which I found informative and generally to challenge
the lack of meaningful intervention by statutory agencies to
assist young people at risk of making a career of petty crime.
If ever there was a time to put in place real supports
for these youngsters, it is now with our booming economy.
What interventions will be meaningful?
I suggest that Government look at how communities are
responding to this problem and make resources available to support
their endeavours.
My one bone of contention
with the article is the statements of Fr. Richard O'Dwyer regarding
his comments on Lone Parents.
Parents Alone Support Service has over 250 members in
Finglas and surrounding areas, we currently have 41 members
in Ballymun. Fr.
O'Dwyer relates out-of-control kids to his view that "a
girl deliberately get pregnant to get a flat to get herself
out of a bad family situation"
Fr. O'Dwyer then goes on to say "she gets to thinking
her life is ruined and the only way forward is to get another
partner and have another kid and get another £30.00."
This statement contains many
misconceptions that prevail about Lone Parents. First of all child delinquency isn't synonymous with Lone Parents
it is however linked to poverty, and many Lone Parents live
in poverty. Its
doubtful that Lone Parents get pregnant to get housed local
authorities, in fact Treoir the Federation of Unmarried Parents
issued an information leaflet in April of this year showing
that their research found "there
is no evidence that Lone Parents become pregnant simply to avail
of social welfare payments and easy access to local authority
housing" . Another
unsubstantiated statement he makes "Lone
Parents get pregnant to "escape a bad family situation".
Fr. O'Dwyer may have come across a lone parent with this
experience, however, he cannot assume this to the norm.
In my work with Lone Parents I have found this rarely
to be the case and if I were to generalise, unplanned pregnancy
would be most common reason for becoming a Lone Parent.
Finally, the idea that a
Lone Parent would have a second child to avail of an increase
of £30.00 per weeks beggars all belief.
The real figure is actually £15.20- increase Lone Parents
Book and £8.20-increase children's allowance totalling a mere
£23.40 per week. I
would challenge anyone to raise, feed and clothe a toddler on
£23.40. Lone Parents
are fully aware of the prohibitive cost involved in raising
children, particularly their second child.
I apologise to Fr. O'Dwyer
if he feels that I am nit picking, as I am sure he is genuinely
trying to combat poverty in Ballymun. If comments such as his,
based on anecdotal evidence, go unchallenged they have potential
to become common currency amongst the general public, adding
to an existing plethora of myths about Lone Parents.
Yours sincerely
____________
John O'Neill
On behalf of the Management committee
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