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ALTHOUGH THERE WERE about 300 fewer babies born in 2011 than in the previous year, the number of births registered is still over 23 per cent higher than a decade ago.
According to the Central Statistics Office Vital Statistics report for 2011, a total of 74,650 births were registered during the year.
The figures show that the average age of mothers was 31.8 years but with an average 29.8 years, first-time mums are younger. Almost two in every five births last year were to first timers.
Just less than 34 per cent of births in the year were to parents who were not married to each other. However, of those, more than half were to cohabiting couples.
Births to mothers with Irish nationality accounted for 77 per cent of all those registered. Almost 11 per cent were to women from Accession states and 7.8 per cent to mothers from non-EU countries.
The CSO report revealed the natural increase in population (births minus deaths) was 45,655 a decrease of 3.7 per cent on the 2010.
Altogether in 2011, there were 28,995 deaths registered across Ireland – an increase of about 1,430 in the year. Almost three in every four deaths were from either diseases of the circulatory system (33 per cent), malignant neoplasm (30 per cent) or diseases of the respiratory system (12 per cent).
Deaths due to accidents, suicide or other external causes accounted for a further 6 per cent. There were 525 suicides registered in the year, giving a rate of 11.4 per 100,000. This is a significant 7 per cent jump on 2010 figures. Analysis of the data shows a rise in male suicides which account for 84 per cent of all suicide deaths in 2011.
There were 258 infant deaths registered, giving an infant mortality rate of 3.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. There were 190 neonatal deaths (deaths of infants aged under four weeks) registered in 2011.
There were 19,879 marriages registered in 2011, 756 less than in 2010. The number of divorces granted by the Circuit Court and the High Court was 2,819, a decrease of 274 on the 2010 figure.
The Samaritans are available at 1850 60 90 90 or by email at jo@samaritans.org. Other helpful contact numbers include Aware at 1890 303 302; Console at 1800 201 890; Pieta House at 01 601 0000, email mary@pieta.ie
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Marriage isn’t a requirement for to have kids..
I would say that fornication is largely to blame for this shocking statistic
or a sharp increase in the price of rubber?
Or Centra’s beer specials!
I’d go as far as to say it is to blame for 100% of births in Ireland :-P
Ridin’ is to blame! Ridin’ I tells ye!
Bit of a shame for the fathers. They get feck all rights if they aren’t married to the mother of their children.
Not automatically, no, but you can arrange the legal guardianship thing separately. Treoir have all the info: http://www.treoir.ie/
Not true. Our last child was born after we got married, the previous three were all born before we did.Shortly after each of them was born, my now husband applied for and got legal guardianship of them and had the same rights as me.
@lisa and @ Katie yeah you can get guardianship that’s the easy part, BUT in Ireland when there’s a breakup 99% of the mother keeps their kids. Granted a father will be granted access but its not 50/50. This is the message p wurple is making. I’ve been through all this. Fathers in Ireland DO NOT GET equal rights in Ireland when it comes to having kids outside of marriage plain and simple. If you want to debate about the system trust me in the last few years i’ve turned into a pro at this subject
Do you think it would be different if you were married, though, Paddy? From what I’ve seen divorced fathers don’t fare a lot better.
I honestly don’t know the answer to that Nick, but you’re probably right, I can’t be 100% but maybe the only difference is that when your married you’re automatically a legal guardian.
And unfortunately, that would seem to indicate that it’s a major issue in the way Ireland treat fathers’ rights in general, rather than just unmarried fathers’ rights.
I thought it would have been more actually, this might have been news in 1986 but not nowadays.
Why do you have to marry b4 you have kids..the bible was written two thousand years ago when things were different back in the day..is high time we accept marriage is not important like it use to be..
Wait till same sex marriage is put to a vote. Marriage will suddenly become a sacred right that needs to be protected at all costs.
‘who says you have to be married before having kids’….nobody of importance
Too True! @ Dave
Tired hearing bout this couldn’t give a sh
No shock there.
What’s the point? It doesn’t matter one iota whether a kid is born inside or outside marriage, as long as it is a result of two people loving each other
I’m actually surprised that it seems to be men commenting that marriage doesn’t matter. A woman has all the rights in the world to her children, men don’t get many of those rights unless they are married to the mother.
As an unmarried man try:
-Travelling across any border with your child on your own.
-Getting access to your children if the mother doesn’t want you in her life.
It also makes a difference financially if one of the couple is out of work. The unmarried partner cannot transfer tax credits to the other person. However, if you are living with someone, you also cannot claim single parent allowance. Unmarried parents with children have chosen the worst financial situation possible for themselves.
I’d hazard a guess that it makes a difference for legalities like inheritance law and consent for medical procedures? Maybe not. Someone can correct me I’m sure.
@ P Wurple – as a father 18 months into a never-ending series of legal proceedures, you’re absolutely right. On the one hand, fathers are criticised for no playing an active role in the lives of their kids, but on the other hand the system presumes and actively pushes fathers into the absentee role. This isn’t just an issue in Ireland, I’m going through this in Germany, and it’s no better here. I was shocked the first time a civil servant told me that I was being selfish and adding to their department’s workload, but the shock wore off the many times I’ve heard this since. And I have to find answers when my kids ask me why they can’t spend more time with me. The in married father issue needs to be dealt with on a European level, not just a national level.
It does matter. Children born to unmarried parents have a higher risk of poverty and are more likely to be a drain on the state than those to married parents. You can say what’s the difference between cohabitting and marriage?
Well, the difference is that the split rate for cohabitting is 50% versus 7% (? or lower) for married couples…
Bit sure about the legal matters P Wurple, but it does affect consent for medical proceedings.
A friend worked in Crumlin children’s hospital, she was herself a single mother. One day a man came in with his son – the child’s appendix was on the verge of rupture, but the mother was away and couldn’t be reached to give consent. The father – not being married to the mother was not legally permitted to. The child had to be made a ward of the state in order to have the appendix out. That’s a lot of faffing about when the child’s life is in danger.
When my friend got home she set about getting legal guardianship for her sons’ father. It involved her and the father having to adopt the child pretty much, but at least it meant that his father was granted the same legal rights as her.
I do enjoy reading prognostications of doom about my children and my 15-year relationship because we’re not married. Must tell the family that we’re bound for splitsville and poverty.
Bit sure? I meant not sure, sorry!
Er? Bit sure? What on earth does that mean.. It should read “Not sure”
Shanti, getting legal guardianship for a biological father doesn’t involve anything as complex as adoption. You just fill in a form and have it witnessed by a solicitor. I think it’s called a statutory declaration for joint guardianship.
I have, incidentally, never heard of anyone asking for proof of legal parentage from anyone bringing a child into hospital – what were they looking for, marriage certificates?
Yup, one of these yokes: http://www.treoir.ie/cms-assets/documents/14048-149928.sino5of1998.pdf
Being unmarried doesn’t mean the child will leave in poverty. It’s just that the odds are higher, that’s all.
50% splitting up means 50% don’t split up.
Giz, most kids happen due to sex. Whether or not the parents love each other is a different matter.
@ P Wurple Why are you surprised that people who are living with someone can’t get single parents allowance. Why should they? A single parent is someone living alone without the help of a partner, married or otherwise .Perhaps the term lone parent would be less confusing.
As in this case a single parent means someone bringing up children by themselves it does not refer to the marital state of the parents a married parent who is separated from their spouse can claim single parent benefits.
If the fathers name is on the birth certificate how would it stop a man taking his child “over any border”?
Children can go on holiday with grandparents and other relations can’t they what is the difference?
Perhaps men might get a few more parental rights when they start giving birth :)
@janet I am not surprised that people can’t claim single parents if they are not single. I am surprised that men are not clued in to what is happening to their own rights. Maybe if people have legal guardianship, the child has the same surname AND they are on the birth cert it’s ok to travel, but you need to remember that without the marriage all those items are now entirely the woman’s choice. She is under no obligation to grant them.
I know a few friends who spoke about marriage to their girlfriend as they thought they should when she got pregnant, and were delighted to be ‘left off the hook’. They were scared of that commitment, or the money. (even though children in my opinion are a much larger and more expensive commitment than marriage) Maybe because of the ambivalence towards a long term partnership, or for other reasons, the relationships went sour. They are now left in the sorry situation of having no access to their own children. They never bothered or didn’t know about the legal guardianship, they were not named on the birth cert, and the child has a different surname to them. They have no legal connection to their children. I feel very sorry for them, it is utterly heartbreaking.
I am sorry to say I also have friends on the other side of the equation. Women who want children, but who are deliberatly leaving their options open for getting rid of the not quite perfect boyfriend in a few years when they have a few babies reared to a managable age. Some naieve men have been duped into thinking they are getting away with something by skipping marriage. They need to be a bit more aware of what they are letting themselves in for.
Well it’s not a good sign, those single mothers will be a drain on the state.. Some mothers hold off from getting married to their partner as they get more benefits as a result.. It’s a sick economy
Yes, I am a terrible drain on the state, with my middle class job in IT, long term relationship, mortgage, etc. Just because someone isn’t married doesn’t mean they’re a)on benefits or b)not in a stable relationship.
Unmarried doesn’t equate to single Peter.
Spot on Lisa and Peter! I know so many ‘single’ parents enjoying all the benefits and allowances with their partners… on the other hand u need a lot of money to have a ‘proper’ Irish standard marriage. however, the plans don’t work out for couples sometimes.. it’s not a good idea to generalise the people but there are so many social welfare abusers around…I think it’s the State’s responsibility to track where the public’s money go…
Olive, 150 quid for a marriage license is hardly a lot of money compared to how much it costs feed, clothe and house another human being until they are an adult.
Jesus what a comment @ Flying Olive.
@Eimear Smith I didn’t understand why you are so surprised with my comment? Ppl are breaking up or they have an unexpected baby or they cannot afford marriage costs or they don’t believe in marriage or they want to abuse the SW system. Anyways if E150 fee is enough to sort out everything why ppl are hesitating then? I have an impression that ppl in Ireland are so obsessed with proper weddings and it’s not cheap I think on the other hand SW in Ireland is generous. I’m not generalising single parents but there are so many SW abusers around..
Why the headline when the article is about far more than babies born out of wedlock?
That headline was used to get you to:
-first read the article
-second, write a disgruntled comment.
It’s what the Journal feeds off.
Getting married = A HUGE WASTE OF MONEY.
Yes if you are having a big fancy wedding. Pretty cheap to just roll up to the registry office and make it legal.
Peter, what a dumb comment to make, to assume all single mothers are a drain on the state is ridiculous!
Don’t be an idiot. There are thousands of “single mothers”, declared to the state as such but yet have working partners, all to screw the state. It’s rife in this country. Not taring them all with the same brush but don’t be so naive as to think there’s not thousands, if not tens of thousands, committing benefit fraud each week.
And how does that equate in relative terms with the money bankers and speculators stole? It doesn’t. Totally riles me when people blame “dole scroungers” for the state of the economy. It is not the fault of them but the fault of the rich elites. Pull the wool from over your eyes.
Martin just because one big misuse of money has occurred that doesn’t excuse every other smaller misuse of money.
A focus on one over the other by the media gives the impression that welfare fraud is far worse that thefts of multiple millions. It’s not. And I never said welfare fraud was ok.
So the infant mortality rate in 2011 was 3.5 deaths per 1,000 births as well as a further 190 neo natal deaths. This information should be forwarded to the Pro Life Campaign and Youth Defense. I believe some of them think it’s zero.
The point is it’s lower than the UK.
What’s the UK rate got to do with it?
What does the Pro-Life Campaign have to do with this article?
I’m always a little suspicious of the suggestion that women are having children in order to extort money from the state.
There have to be easier and less labour intensive (excuse pun) ways of getting cash than raising a small army of bastards, don’t there?
The government pays women to be single mums and stops paying them when they move in with the child’s father. Many families pretend not to live together for that single reason.
There couldn’t have been any other outcome really.
The problem: Children born to parents who are unmarried are legal strangers to their fathers i.e. neither they nor their fathers have any legal rights unless and until they are granted guardianship either through a statutory instrument called SI 5 otherwise known as S.I. No. 5/1998 — Guardianship of Children (Statutory Declaration) Regulations, 1998 and signed and witnessed by a Peace Commissioner, Commissioner for Oaths or a Solicitor and by both parents. In the event that the mother (she is an automatic guardian) refuses to sign then the father can petition the court for an order granting him guardianship.
The solution: Granting fathers automatic guardianship (except in extenuating circumstances e.g. a rape case) I also propose that both parties who engage in sex culminating in the birth of a child should be held jointly accountable and that if one doesn’t want to take on this role then they pay the other party to do so. Their should be a DNA birth certificate issued that would protect the child/ren into the future and guarantee that these child/ren would not be abused by either parent or by a system that currently doesn’t give a shit.
Make the whole thing simple: cohabitation for 2+ years being equivalent to marriage in terms of rights of partners, eg property, assets. Any children born, regardless of length of cohabitation, or not, automatically become the responsibility of both parents, financially and otherwise.
Alan, isn’t the much simpler solution to use the existing framework, and marry the other parent of your child? It is a legal commitment to stay with them longterm.
Because some people who have children together just don’t want to be married? Co-parenting is idea and important, but marriage isn’t an essential part of that. We do hear a lot of horror stories when things go wrong (and obviously the system can screw a lot of fathers, both unmarried and divorced, over), but there are plenty of good parents who co-parent without being together.
What Nick said. My partner and I have personal reasons for not being married but that shouldn’t affect his parental rights to our children. I don’t think “coercing people into a legal institution in order to get one particular right associated with that institution” is the way forward.
Lisa, your situation sounds considerably different to Nicks. Nick is talking about people who are not together. In this case obviously marriage is not the right choice. Where people ARE together and commited to each other longterm, well isn’t that what marriage is? A formal commitment to stay together long term. This is why I also see no problem with gay marriage either.
I didn’t see any advantage to marriage until I found myself travelling behind an ambulance, realising I wouldn’t be able to give consent for a blood transfusion after my (now) husbands accident. I had to phone his mum.
You say coerced into a legal Institution? I say use a legal mechanism to get what you want done. By design it completes a whole pile of legal functions automatically, that otherwise you need to go around the world to complete. Next of kin arrangments, automatic inheritance, guardianship, taxes. All these things are what a couple in a long term relationship eventually want to sort out. That’s all marriage is legally. You can go off and sort out those things individually if you don’t want to go for the automatic route… but, well my point is that there is already something in place for doing it.
I blame the growing disillusionment with the Church.
Unrepentant Fenian bastards was the phrase that came to mind.
my partner and i are together ten years we have two beautiful girls together we would love to do the whole fancy wedding with all our family and friends but 20 to 30grand isn’t easy to come by in Ireland theses days but any ways were happy and our kids are happy and no priest politician or piece of paper will contradict that.
Brian. Why would you waste that kind of money. Go down the registry office for 150 quid.
So what? Who cares???
Judging by the number of comments, lots of people…
Couldn’t be arsed reading any of the comments but would like to add this: Who gives a toss!?
I
I cant believe that the man having his name on the childs birth certificate does not automatically qualify him to be the father if the couple aren’t married, is this true??
“It does matter. Children born to unmarried parents have a higher risk of poverty and are more likely to be a drain on the state than those to married parents. You can say what’s the difference between cohabitting and marriage?
Well, the difference is that the split rate for cohabiting is 50% versus 7% (? or lower) for married couples…”
What a sanctimonious, nasty comment. My parents were not married and what made growing up in that situation more difficult were the misguided, ignorant, self righteous people like yourself. Despite the “idea” that I would grow up to be a drain on the state I got a scholarship, went to college and now I work as a software architect and pay taxes which I hope go to helping struggling single parents rather than lining the pockets of greedy property developers. The sad thing is that we still have people like you living in this country. You should be ashamed of yourself. If you actually grew up in this poverty that you mention maybe you would have more empath.
And just consider this, there are property developers out there who owe the Irish tax payer millions and still live in massive houses in places like mount merrion, while people like you shift the focus to those single parents who you consider to be a drain on the state who are basically subsisting on what they receive. Who is the bigger drain on the economy?
And, what do you suggest the country does? If you cut off benefits you leave people to starve and you increase crime levels and health care costs. Is that the kind of country that you want? Are you really that short sited?
And by the way, not every couple who are unmarried parents are, as you put it “a drain on the state”. There are many cohabiting couples who choose to have children without getting married because they believe that marriage is an outdated thing not applicable to them and many of these people do not claim single parents allowance because they cohabit.
Did nobody notice the lack of any kind of mathematical brain on the Author.
“The figures show that the average age of mothers was 31.8 years but with an average 29.8 years, first-time mums are younger.”
Eh Duh! It would be impossible for the average of first time mums age to be higher than the Average mums age.
What is actually surprising is how close the two figures are.
It would indicate a heck of a lot of baby making is planned and consecutive in this country.
@ JustMe what a simple and excellent idea
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