CHERISH is still needed today, its president, Senator Mary Henry, told a conference to celebrate its 25th anniversary yesterday.
She told the organisation for unmarried mothers that she was "incandescent with rage" to find that lone mothers were being targeted during the election campaign.
Referring to the PDs' manifesto proposal to "encourage" single mothers to live at home, she said: "One has to ask why the girl is not living at home. It is quite a strain on some families. . . There could be very bad relationships within the family. The child must be central, and the child must have stability in its life."
Ms Maura O'Dea Richards the Cherish founder, described its early days when she was trying to find other single mothers to establish a network. Her daughter was born in 1970.
"It was no longer acceptable that unmarried mothers gave birth to their babies and gave them away, and then became nice Irish girls and waited for a man to come along and convey respectability on them. And then they'd have other children and forget the first one completely."
A young woman who worked with her to establish a network in those days "wanted to keep her child. No matter what we did she could not keep that baby." She could not find accommodation or a job and "I don't know where she is now", she said.
The conference was opened by the President, Mrs Robinson, who as a young senator became its first president in 1973 and held that position until 1992.
What Cherish had started, a self help and self development group, was now mushrooming all over the State as bottom up community groups, she said.
Prof William Duncan, an early Cherish patron, said one of its main achievements was bringing about the unmarried mother's allowance, £8.10 at the time, in the May 1973 budget. Until then over 90 per cent of children born outside marriage were adopted, largely because there was no economic alternative. The allowance gave unmarried mothers a choice.
Cherish represented the best in law reform movements, he said, combining a deep commitment to justice with a practical approach.
There was still a lot to do in law reform, he said. "How best to encourage fathers in their parenting and support responsibilities remains a challenge."
He warned against making benefits conditional on the mother seeking maintenance from the father, as this could lead to concealing paternity, which would not be in the interests of the child. A balance needed to be struck between the right of the child to a beneficial relationship with both parents, and the needs of the primary caretaker, usually the mother, not to be unreasonably trammelled in carrying out that work.
Other founding members of the organisation who attended the conference were Ms Annette Hunter, Ms Margaret Murphy, Ms Mary Callan, Ms Irene Blanchfield, Ms Colette O'Neill and Ms Colette Byrnes.