Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I will have a law degree by the time I get out of here. The Bill states that an tArd Chláraitheoir may conduct or cause to be conducted "such enquiries as he or she considers necessary" to ascertain whether a birth, stillbirth, death or marriage required to be registered under this Act, or if the repealed enactments, as may be appropriate, has been so registered. If it has been, it must be ascertained "whether the particulars in relation to it in the entries of the register concerned are correct and complete".

An tArd–Chláraitheoir may have an inquiry to determine registration in a particular case. That is where the role of an tArd–Chláraitheoir comes in. In that inquiry an tArd–Chláraitheoir may determine, following that event, whether the particulars concerned in the register are incorrect or incomplete. When we get to other sections in this legislation, the assumption is that the mother is the biological mother.