Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

It is a duty of any parent to do what is the most important action on behalf of a child, namely to register it. Given that we have allowed the registration of a birth in any registrar's office, it is an important and imperative duty on parents that they appear before the registrar to authenticate the identity of their child. It is important that the information is absolutely accurate. As Members will be aware, any inaccuracy in a person's birth certificate could create great difficulties for him or her in future life. To make the obligation optional would undermine the importance of the registration of the birth of a child.

Under section 19, we have facilitated a situation whereby a qualified informant can also participate in the registration of a birth where the parents are dead or incapable through ill health of complying with this subsection, unless he or she reasonably believes another qualified informant has complied with it in regard to the birth. Those are the only exceptions made with regard to the registration of a child.

In the main, most people are quite excited and anxious to register their children fairly quickly. Given the importance of a birth certificate, there is a duty on parents to go before the registrar to register a child. By facilitating and modernising the methodology by which that can be done, this facilitates the registration. For example, a couple can register a child's birth at any registrar's office. In the past, if a couple's child was born in Dublin and the couple came from Offaly, they had to register the child in Dublin. That has been done away with. One will now have three months to register a child whereas it used to be 42 days. We have certainly addressed the concerns that existed, while appreciating the pressures people are under. It is a fundamental duty of a parent to register a child and to be present for the registration.