Rights of the family

Family rights and the Irish Constitution

The family founded on marriage in Ireland possesses a collection of constitutional rights. That is, rights that are set down by Bunreacht na hÉireann (the Irish Constitution). These constitutional rights include:

The right to marital privacy. This means that couples may make their own decisions about family planning. Read more about family planning services in Ireland here.

The right to consort together, to enjoy each other's company and to procreate. This right may be limited or restricted where a family member is in prison or where one spouse is a non-citizen. You can read more about prisoners rights here.

The right of parents to be the main and natural educators of their children. The state must respect your right as parents to provide for the religious, moral, intellectual, physical and social education of your children. The state cannot oblige you to send your children to school or to any particular type of school but it may require that children receive a certain minimum education.

The right to free primary education - this means that the state must pay for your children's primary education. State aid for schools must not discriminate between schools of different religions.

The right to decide the religion of your children. The state cannot interfere with this right.

There is a constitutional principle that married parents have equal rights to and are joint guardians of their children. If the parents separate or divorce, the courts may decide who will have custody of the children. The paramount consideration is the welfare of the children. Read more about separation, divorce and children here.

You can view the full text of the Irish Constitution here (pdf).