Sir, - I note with some amusement Mr Mervyn Taylor's pronouncements on gender balance as reported in The Irish Times of October 14th.
Perhaps Mr Taylor might consider that the gender balance which he is rightly insisting should apply on State boards, be equally applied to the operation of the Family Law Courts system.
It would be wonderful if Mr Taylor, as the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, could use his ministerial clout to ensure that custody of children is awarded to fathers in at least 40 per cent of the cases appearing before those courts rather than the blatantly discriminatory 10 per cent of cases as happens at present. This would ensure that (and I quote from Mr Taylor's speech to the Labour Women's National Council) "meritorious candidates of both genders" are represented among the custodians of their children.
True gender balance requires that Mr Taylor shows the same determination "to tackle this problem by legislation if necessary to ensure that there is a reasonable and balanced" approach to the parenting of children following marriage break up. Of course the real solution to his problem is to legislate for joint custody orders in all but the most exceptional cases, rather than continuing with the adversarial custody/access system which we have at present. Better still, take matrimonial disputes out of the court system altogether and set up a Family Tribunal as an alternative.
It seems Mr Taylor has some way to go yet, including taking on powerful vested interests in the legal profession, before he can claim to have brought about true gender balance. - Yours, etc.,
69 Sonesta,
Malahide, Co. Dublin.