Submission

MOTHERS  AT  HOME  SUBMISSION  TO  THE  APOCC ON  THE  FAMILY.

 INTRODUCTION.

 Mothers At Home supports the Irish Constitutional definition of the Family based on Marriage.

MAH supports the current legal definition of Marriage as laid down by Lord Penzance in Hyde v Hyde as ‘voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others’, expanded on by the Irish Courts in Murray v Ireland [1985] Costello J.  ‘the Constitution makes clear that the concept and nature of marriage, which it enshrines, are derived from the Christian notion of a partnership based on an irrevocable personal consent given by both spouses which establishes a unique and very special life-long relationship’. 

MAH supports the Supreme Court definition of marriage (B v R {1995}), as ‘the voluntary and permanent union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others for life.’

MAH understands that when the Minister for Social Welfare declared {launch of the International Year of the Family, Dublin Castle, 1994}, that his Department had embraced the UN technical definition of the Family, he did not intend the UN definition to be understood other than in accordance with the Irish Constitutional definition of the Family based on Marriage (as defined by the Irish Courts).  The UN definition is: ‘any combination of two or more persons who are bound together by ties of mutual consent, birth and/or adoption or placement and who together assume responsibility for, interalia, the care and maintenance of group members, the addition of new members through pro-creation or adoption, the socialisation of children and the social control of its members’.   MAH takes it that the ‘ties of mutual consent’ means ‘Marriage’ as defined by the Irish Courts (above).

There is ample proof worldwide that faithfulness in marriage is a bulwark against the legion of existing threats to our children’s and society’s future, including the threat of the deadly AIDS virus, and enlightened policy makers cannot, dare not, ignore this proven fact.   MAH supports the view that society needs the Family based on Marriage.  The Marriage-based Family (as defined above by the Irish Courts) is the fundamental unit of society – the ONLY unit that can offer security and stability to our children and to future generations.  Co-habitation, which is not permanent, does NOT offer security and stability, and enlightened policy-makers who truly care about how society is organised, could NOT support the legalisation of social insecurity and social instability.

MAH believes that the Family’s needs are not being attended to by policies that force mothers to work outside the home.    If parents are to be enabled to “together assume responsibility for the care and maintenance of…and the socialisation of children”, one parent – usually the mother – must be free to choose to be a full-time carer, a stay-at-home mum.  Art. 41.2.1 and Art. 41.2.2. of the Irish Constitution enshrines this principle.

MAH also endorses the view held by a number of international and European women’s movements, (Mouvement Mondiel des Meres - MMM International - to which MAH is affiliated and also FEFAF – Federation Europeene des Femmes Actives au Foyer – and others, that if a study was carried out of the social and economic value of the work done in the home, it would be apparent to all but the most blinkered of policy makers, that the cost of replacing home care by state care, would be enormous and not cost effective.

MAH wants that study done, before any decision is taken by the All Party Oireachtas Review Committee on the Family.

We wish to refer our policy makers to the preamble to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, which insists that achieving the EU goal of improving living and working conditions will only be possible when policy makers have good quality information.  There is a wealth of good quality information available to support the view that the future of society passes by way of the Marriage-based Family as defined by the Irish Courts (above).  MAH is prepared to make this information available to policy makers here.  If Ireland and the EU are seriously concerned about improving living and working conditions, then they will undoubtedly choose to protect and promote the proven vehicle, the Marriage-based Family, and oppose policies and laws that weaken or undermine this social unit.

The invitation by the APOCC for submissions directs respondents under 9 headings. Based on the above statement, we endeavour to respond under the 9 headings, although we are at a loss to understand why some of these questions are even included:

1. The Irish Constitutional definition of the Family should be upheld – i.e. a man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children.
2. The vast majority of families are functional units.  Their differences are resolved and a balance struck within the Family.  The State has no authority to interfere in the functional Family.  The Constitution obliges the State to respect the authority of the Family.  MAH wants this obligation to remain and to be strengthened in law and policy.  Questions of personal rights have always been resolved and should continue to be so under Art. 40:3
3. It would be contrary to the common good to give recognition to unions other than those based on marriage as defined above.  There is abundant proof to show that promoting any other form of unions other than those based on heterosexual marriage leads to instability in society and poses a serious threat to the rights and needs of the Child.  The common good is not served.
4. Our position on homosexual coupling is clear for reasons that must be obvious to anyone with a scrap of common-sense.  Homosexual coupling can never be marriage.
5. Again our answer to this is uncompromisingly NO.  The reasons are thoroughly explained in the introduction to this submission.  Far from being outdated, Art. 41:2:1 and Art. 41:2:2 were never more necessary than they are at this point in time, for the sake of mothers, for the same of fathers, for the sake of the children and in the interests of the common good.
6. The Constitutional rights and duties of the stay-at-home mother (including natural, adoptive, foster mother,) as expressed in Art. 41:2:1 and in Art. 41:2:2 should be upheld in law and policy.    These rights, which imply rights and duties to the married father, cannot and should not be understood or interpreted other than in accordance with the natural law understanding of the Family as defined at (1) above.
7. Refer to (6) above.  MAH supports the current legal position that makes the married father, (including natural, adoptive, foster-father) the Custodian of his Family. 
8. MAH supports the true rights of all children, born and unborn.   The right to kill a child, born or unborn, at home or abroad, should not be protected by the Constitution.
9. UN CRC should respect an Irish Constitutional position in line with (8) above.