FG director of the yes campaign Simon Coveney’s comments in yesterday’s Irish Times are an interesting study in a politician answering the question he wasn’t asked.
This newspaper contacted Coveney’s office twice, asking for the Minister’s view on whether or not the State should be instrumental in “deliberately” denying a child a father and mother from the very outset of his or her life.
Neither Mr Coveney nor his office responded. However in yesterday’s Times, he made the preposterous suggestion that if the State guaranteed the right of children to a mother and father, children would have to be taken from single parents and widows would be obliged to remarry!!!
Coveney said: “Every child has a biological mother and father, of course they do, but not every child has a mother and father. We have huge numbers of children at the moment growing up in single parent households…We have same sex couples that have the responsibility to bring up children.”
Coveney was asked if believed the right to a mother and father existed, and he said:
“No I don’t, no. If it was as simple as every child having the right to a mother and father, we would essentially be taking children off parents who are single parents for all sorts of reasons.
What if a parent dies for example, are we going to force another parent on that child? Anyone who thinks that family is as simple as organising a traditional nuclear family for every child in the country I don’t think really understands the complexity of family relationships.”
The new Children and Family Relationships law allows a same-sex couple the same right to adopt as a married man and woman, meaning some children will deliberately lose out with the help of the State on being raised by both a mother and a father.
In addition, the same law allows single people and same-sex couples to use IVF on the same terms as male/female couples meaning those children also will lose out on either a mother or a father which the deliberate help of the State
Mr Coveney and the Yes Campaign are clearly and foolishly trying to muddy the waters on this critical aspect of the referendum. As the leader of the Government’s Campaign, there is one important question that he must answer now:
“Do you believe that the State should instigate legislation which will deliberately cause some children to never have a mother and father?”
The Irish electorate are waiting for his answer.