Dr. Joan Cronin

But it is not the only reason that women are choosing to have less or indeed no children.

It is vitally important.

And I suppose, David, if we think back to the olden days, so to speak, the 40s, 50s, 60s, when women had large, very large numbers of children, sometimes in excess of 10 children.

But what was different then was that, you know, they lived with their parents.

So there was like there was a village or there were different generations raising children.

And that's not there anymore because we've come to the stage now that, you know, we all want our own home and it should be something that we're entitled to.

But with that, you've more, I suppose, the emergence of the nuclear rather than the traditional family.

But is it possible, David, that we go back to that again, that grandparents are going to have to try and support and help young people to look after children?

Under such pressure, absolutely.

And I mean, will we go back to where we were in the 50s and 60s in Ireland?

You know, like I said, with emerging parents or parents living with their older parents, sharing accommodation and like that intergenerational parenting, so to speak.

I suppose, look, going back to the 1937 Constitution written by Eamon de Valera, and I suppose there was huge influence from Archbishop Charles McCabe at the time.

I suppose, look, I would be somewhat critical of the Constitution in the sense that it was written by men essentially to control women.

I mean, if we look at Article 41.2.2, the woman shall be obliged not to work outside the home and we shall support her from a state perspective.

The children's allowance came in as a consequence of that.

Yeah, strongly encouraged, David.

So I suppose we don't want to go back to that.

What we want is to promote choice among women.

That's what's really, really important here.

And I suppose, as we said, historically, that choice has been taken away from us because, you know, between church and state, we have always been encouraged, you know, to create the next generation of Irish Catholic children.