Background to the Research

• Comparing public policy in relation to the family in Ireland, North and South, is difficult because there is a lack of data on the family in the two separate regions. In light of this, the authors focus on two areas of state/family relations. They explore the historical development of state/family relations in the two regions and go on to illustrate, through the use of child protection policy, how state policy directed at the family has evolved along quite different lines in each jurisdiction due to the unique foundations upon which each state was established.

Research Approach

• The authors use secondary data analysis in order to explore the issue of family/ state relations in the two parts of Ireland.
  

Main Findings

Historical Roots

• State/family relations in each region must be understood within the context of a model of state intervention upon which each state was based. In broad terms, the state in the South was based on a small-farm society and anti-colonism and the Northern state on industrialisation and unionism. Each needed a particular family form in order to maintain it.
• Within the nationalist movement, agrarian policies became the focus of agitation for independence and the small-farm family became the most important family form in a social structure which was predominantly rural.
• In the South, a model of the family emerged in which the family operated as a property-owning unit of production, semi-autonomous and to a degree distant from the industrial economy. The role of the state in relation to the agrarian model of the family was limited to policies that helped to ensure the family-based distribution of capital (namely land and property) and a Catholic and patriarchal regulation of moral life.
• The dominance of the agrarian model in the South also ensured a minimal role for the state in social policy, in terms of income distribution and other social services.
• Despite the strong agricultural tradition in the North, industrialisation and the link with the UK state, ensured a family policy that was closer to the British model.
• However, family policy developed in the North in unique ways. Distributive policies were more restrictive and 'quango's/corporate bodies played a greater role in the administration and development of policy.

Child Protection

• There has been a greater reliance on private family law and parental rights in the South of Ireland. The role of the state in family policy has been limited.
• In the North, there has been greater reliance on public family law and more state intervention in relation to the family.
• Statutory authorities in the South can assume parental duties, but not parental rights. Where children are taken into care, it is usually the case that the parents have requested help from Health Boards. In 1985, 73% of children in care were there by voluntary consent.
• In the South, the 1991 Children Care Act placed a duty on Health Boards to identify children at risk of neglect and provide services for them. An emphasis remained on the family knowing what was best and the family home being the best place for the child.
• Until 1952 there was no legislation in the South allowing adoption and provision on adoption remains limited. Legally there is a high degree of control over statutory authorities wishing to place children in care up for adoption against the parents wishes. Adoption in the South remains largely a matter of parental discretion.
• High numbers of children in care for long periods of time is a distinct feature of Southern child-care policy.
• Until the mid-1970s, most children were also placed in care at the request or with the approval of parents in the North. After the introduction of the Children and Young Persons Act (NI) 1968, which promoted the 'best interests of the child', the numbers taken into care involuntarily rose considerably.
• Direct Rule in the North established HSSBs which in turn heralded the expansion of public services. HSSBs can assume parental rights and duties and dispense with parental consent. Boards also have greater powers - through wardship proceeding for non-consensual adoption.
• The 1987 Adoption (NI) Order further restricted parental rights and consent to withold adoption. The North has an established pattern of close co-operation between the judiciary and HSSBs - this has given Boards extra power and leverage in Child Protection. The effects of the 1996 Children's Order, which emphasises maintaining children in their families, have yet to be assessed.
• The number of children in care in the North is more than double than in the South, and these children are usually placed in care involuntarily. The North has double the number of practising social workers than the South.

Conclusions

• Since the 1960s, the Catholic agrarian hegemony has been diminishing in state/family policy in the South. Family policy is beginning to converge towards those policies being pursued in the North.
• Issues such as divorce, abortion, child sex abuse and adoption enjoy a higher public profile in the South than in the North.
• The institutional and moral heritage of each region continues to inform state action on the family in each jurisdiction.