Hi,
It won't really benefit her not to have his name on the birth cert, this is how the SW work their lone parent payment: the mother has to seek maintenance from the father, a full social welfare lone parent payment is about 160 euro a week. Say for example the father agrees to pay 60 euro, the SW will top this up to 160.i.e they will pay her 100 they will look for proof that she is seeking maintenance, meaning she has to name the father, the SW will send him a letter acknowledging the amount he is paying. Presumably if she is not putting his name on the birth cert she will have to say to the SW that either a) she deson.t know who the father is, or b) he's left the country. For the sake of the child the parents names should both be on the cert for obvious moral reasons and for avoiding awkward questions later on in life. If he wanted to enforce his name going on the birth cert, he could just say he will refuse to pay maintenance. If she takes him to court for this she will have to declare him to the social welfare, meaning that they will adjust her SW payment according to the amount he is paying her. So she will be back to square 1 with the same amount of money if he was paying her maintenance and she was claiming Sw.
As regards access and stuff the courts now look favourably on the father being part of the childs life and will do everthing to encourage contact with the child.
With regard to parenting the father has no rights at all if they are not marrried. A way around this is to seek guardianship, which means that the father can have a say in choice of schools, etc. You need a solicitor to do this. It also means that she cant leave the country (bit extreme i Know) witht eh child without the fathers consent. She may contest him having guardianship but it is easy to get it in court. He needs to keep photos, receipts, etc, like to prove he has a relationship with the child.
As well, tell her it is not worth claiming illegally, a friend of mine got caught and got a bill from the sw for 23 grand!!
Also for the father there is a tax break you can get for being a lone parent i.e if the child stays with him at least one night during the tax year, it means he gets a lone parent tax credit (double the normal). He wont be able to claim that if she refuses to acknowledge him as the father!
Wish him luck, I had a huge battle with my ex over maintenance, custody etc..... and it was not pleasant!! Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!
Hope this helps, also ring treoir they have a really good booklet for free which explains all the options.