Mr. Steven Smyrl:

I thank the committee for the invitation to speak. The input today from genealogists pertains to the coroners' responsibility for registering deaths and the effect this has on the extent to which much of the required biographical data is omitted from such registrations. The origins of the Coroners Service developed out of a fiscal role surrounding death brought to Ireland by the English colonists in the 12th century. By the 18th century, it had developed into one almost entirely restricted to establishing the facts around unexplained deaths.

Unlike other courts, that of the coroner is not adversarial but rather inquisitorial. It is this role of establishing facts and gathering information which led, under the Registration of Births and Deaths (Ireland) Act 1863, and reconfirmed in the Civil Registration Act 2004, to coroners being given responsibility for registering the deaths of those who demise was sudden, violent or simply unexplained. Since 1863, under successive legislation the registration process has remained largely unchanged. Currently, section 41 of the 2004 Act requires that the coroner "shall give the appropriate registrar a certificate containing the required particulars of the death concerned and that registrar shall register the death in such manner as [the Registrar General] may direct".

Under the 1863 Act there were eight key particulars to be recorded in each registration. They comprised the date and place of death, the name of the deceased, the deceased’s sex, marital status, age and occupation, the cause of death and the name, qualification and address of the informant.

From our modern day perspective, 160 years later, the obvious omissions in the data recorded should have rung alarm bells. For whatever reason, the system adopted in Ireland was almost identical to that implemented in England and Wales a generation earlier in 1837. By contrast, the data recorded in Scottish civil death registrations from 1855 included vital additional information including the deceased’s place of birth and their parents' names, including their mother's maiden surname.

The failings of the Irish system are that for many death registrations, once they move beyond living memory, it can be almost impossible to match a death record to a birth record. As genealogists, we tend to refer to this as "genealogical snap", referencing the children’s card game where two picture cards must match. Historically, in terms of civil registration, only a name and age on a death registration will match, or approximately match, the same data recorded on a birth registration, and even then, this is beset with problems. For instance, for married women, only their husband’s surname will be recorded and not their own birth surname.

In the years leading up to the drafting of the Civil Registration Bill 2003, a significant amount of lobbying, spearheaded by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations, was undertaken by genealogists to ensure that the death registration system in Ireland was brought into line with guidelines set by the United Nations. We felt it was imperative that for the system to have any integrity, much broader biographical data would need to be recorded so that, again referencing genealogical snap, all three vital records of a citizen's life - those of birth, marriage and death - could be linked together.

Under section 37 of the 2004 Act, for each deceased person death registrations are required to record their date and place of birth and the name and birth surname of their mother and father. This system came into operation on 5 December 2005 under SI 764 of that year.

I have approximately three more paragraphs to read. Should I continue?