Getting married is expensive. But so is not getting married

Sir, – Jennifer O’Connell is not wrong pointing out the financial costs of getting married for women, particularly when they have children and things go wrong (“Does it matter if Belle Burden’s controversial divorce memoir doesn’t tell the whole truth?”). Single mothers in Ireland are at the highest risk of poverty in the country.

However, as usual, the focus is primarily on women who are or have been married. Those who do not get married also pay a huge financial cost for not getting married, regardless of why this has occurred. They are also subject to the gender pay gap, glass ceilings and unrealistic expectations in workloads, because generally women get things done. They also shoulder the burden of running a household with broadly similar costs on one income, have no potential supplementary income from a spouse in the form of alimony or pension rights.

We know this is expensive; otherwise albeit short-lived widow/widowers tax credits would not exist. No other supplementary supports exist for a single-person household. And let’s not forget the “pink tax” or tradespeople eyeing up a woman on her own with egregious quotes.

While it might be argued that getting married can come at huge financial cost, in modern Ireland, not getting married also does. – Yours, etc,