Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to amendment No. 105, which is similar to Deputy Bacik's amendment No. 104. I thank the Deputy for her amendment. This relates to the definition of illegal birth registration and use of the term "incorrect birth registration" within the legislation. I am very clear and I and the Government absolutely accept that illegal birth registrations took place, and in terms of my engagement with this issue, this is how I describe them. It is also important, speaking to the set of amendments that Deputy Cairns spoke to earlier, that we make sure as broad a number of people as possible can use the provisions of this legislation. Our concern is if we use a definition of "illegal birth registration", there is a requirement to prove illegality before using that particular provision to benefit. A person who is the subject of an incorrect birth registration as it currently stands can use this legislation. If a person has to prove that his or her birth registration was not just incorrect but was actually illegal, that is a harder standard to prove. That means the provision of using this legislation can apply to fewer people. What we have always tried to do is broaden access to this legislation to let as many people as possible use the provisions of this legislation to get their information.

However, I am cognisant of the issues that have been raised about the language, so I have brought forward an amendment quite similar to Deputy Bacik's. I asked my officials to work with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. This amendment clarifies that information leading to an incorrect birth registration was given to the General Register Office by a third party, and that information was not merely incorrect, but also false or misleading. Therefore we have used that term and the addition of that language, that is, as a result of giving information that was false or misleading in respect of the name, to try to address that. That is very similar to the change Deputy Bacik proposed. I believe this addresses the concerns that have been raised.