UNMARRIED fathers should be given the automatic right of guardianship of their children, the Labour party has insisted.

Launching draft legislation intended to modernise family law, the party's equality spokeswoman Kathleen Lynch said it was time to stop discriminating against men.

With one in three children now being born to couples who are not officially married, Ms Lynch warned it was essential to guarantee the rights of fathers in case of a breakdown in the relationship.

"At present the child's right to know and be cared for by both of his or her parents is not fully respected in Irish law insofar as there is no automatic registration of an unmarried father on the child's birth certificate and an unmarried father has no automatic guardianship role.

"When a relationship breaks down the fathers have no rights. We would not stand for women being treated in this way," she said.

Labour will use its parliamentary time to push the initiative forward as Ms Lynch insists Ireland is living in the past.

"There have been huge changes in Irish society and in social attitudes since the principal piece of legislation governing guardianship was passed in 1964. There has been a huge increase, in particular, in the number of children born outside of marriage since then. In 1964 the number of births outside of marriage was less than 5%. The most recent statistics suggest that this has now grown to almost 32%. The quarterly figures published since then show no decline in this pattern and in some urban areas the numbers of births outside of marriage is close to two thirds," said Ms Lynch. "Clearly our legislation needs to be updated to take account of the changes that have occurred since 1964.

"Contrary to the popular myth, this is not a phenomenon of teenage pregnancy, as the vast majority of single births are to mothers in their twenties and thirties," she said.

Labour is also pressing for dedicated family courts to be introduced in Ireland.