Mr. Liam Daly:

We have not seen the submissions so, to an extent, that limits the response I can make. On the comments from Féileacáin and the issue of the register and the record, the default position is that the register would be public. A public register is very much that. It is publicly searchable by everybody. We are conscious that registration of stillbirths is voluntary on the part of parents. Not all parents choose to register stillbirths. There are privacy concerns in that regard. Both the Department and Féileacáin, through the concerns it has expressed, are coming at it with a view to trying to make sure that we put in a solution that recognises the wishes and interests of parents, but we are trying to strike a balance. It is felt that rather than having a default position, we want consent to be explicitly stated. That is why we approached it in terms of the record. That was the proposal we had. When we see the submission, if the committee forwards it to us, we will obviously be happy to examine the matter again.

On the criteria and the issue of retrospection, when the Act was originally introduced in 1994, stillbirths were not registered in Ireland prior to that date. At that stage, when the Act was enacted, provision was made for retrospective registration of stillbirths. We have entries on the stillbirth register that go back to the 1930s. Those entries were obviously made in line with the criteria adopted in 1994. We are now changing the limits and criteria. In doing that, we have not specified an operational date. That may well allow us to do what is being sought. We have not completed the full drafting process with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. There is a legal issue to be considered in that regard. Again, I understand the point that is being made. The approach we have always taken on this, going back to the original principles when the provision was made in 1994, was to be as supportive as is possible.

On the feedback from the Irish Hospice Foundation on the training of staff and facilities, we will raise what we have heard with superintendent registrars. The superintendent registrars and registrars do a very good job. I speak from the experience of having to register a variety of life events. They operate in a very empathetic fashion but we will relay that to them and see what can be done.

On the issue of the tell-us-once approach to the registration of deaths, as part of the development of online services, when we roll them out, it is very clear that underpinning that will be a need for very clear communication to people about what the process involves. That gives us an absolute opportunity to make sure that we also try to address those concerns and we make clear how a person goes about things, what the requirements area, how a person may fulfil those requirements and what it involves. That is very much part of our communication campaign.

On coroner cases, at the moment the issue that is preventing the completion of registration is the determination, say, of the cause of death of a person. We know that a person is deceased and we are certain as to his or her identity. We are proposing that will then allow us to register the death and, when the cause of death has been determined, we subsequently add that to the register.

Then, when the cause of death is determined, we subsequently add it to the register.

With regard to maternity hospitals, my understanding is that we get a variety of electronic notifications. Mr O'Loughlin might comment on the detail. The majority of communications are now electronic but registrars do get some communications in the manual form. In such cases, the information has to be inputted into our IT system. We recognise that when somebody comes to register a birth, we have actually been notified of it, so it is a matter of a combination of both.

A death notification form is issued by a hospital or GP, or from the medical profession, not by undertakers and so on. The next of kin or a qualified informant will receive the death notification form directly from the hospital or treating GP. At present, there is no central notification. The State is not aware that a person has actually deceased at this point. The death notification form is with the next of kin and it is only when the registration is completed that the State knows. The notification is issued by the medical profession, be it the hospital or a GP.