Mr. Steven Smyrl:

We have heard some wonderful debate and contributions today. We feel pretty small by comparison because our bugbear, as Professor Cusack rightly pointed out, is to do with the registration of deaths. Professor Cusack is right that perhaps ten or 12 years ago we had some communication. There may have been a little confusion, however, because we are absolutely in agreement with what Professor Cusack said, namely, that the Coroner Service is not to be involved in genealogy, genealogical research or gathering of information. In the two submissions I have made, the first, more extensive one to the committee and the short three-minute contribution, which I did not manage to finish within three minutes, we quite clearly say that what we would prefer to see with the registration of deaths is that the system be widened out. At the moment, for any death that takes place where the coroner is not involved, the doctor issues a medical cause-of-death certificate. It is a very simple device. Whether it is in paper form or whether some sort of IT solution is found in more modern times, that document is then brought to the registrar and the death is registered. Then the next of kin are able to provide the information required. That is a really important thing for the next of kin because they want to feel involved. Being able to provide some key information that only they can give, that is, the date and place of birth of the deceased and his or her parents' names, gives them a real input into the system.

We suggest that the coroner system be widened out and that, in future, the coroner issue some kind of medical form of death certificate, a document that would set out his or her findings, to the next of kin or the legal representative, which would then be brought to the registrar. That would resolve this issue. We have talked about the humanity of all of this.

One of the things that my colleague and I would say is that the lack of information in registrations is a concern. When looking at deaths registered prior to 2004, under the old regulations which involved very brief information, we found that, once those deaths moved beyond living memory, it was no longer possible for anybody to say that a given Mary Murphy, born in Limerick, was the same person as a Mary O'Connor who died up in Dublin. Since 2004, the maiden surname of a woman, the birth name of a woman, the date and place of birth and the parents' names, including the mothers' maiden name, are included. We joke that it is like the old card game, snap. You can put the records together. That is really the nub of our proposal and submission to the committee. I ask that the committee take those recommendations on board.