Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

No, it does not. As I said, the signature has to be made with our registrar. We talk about a minimum of five days and circumstances may arise where documentation may not be correct, for example, and that would have to be dealt with. That is the reason we are providing for a minimum of five days. That is the framework we are looking at, for example, if somebody forgot something or needed to come back with something else. It might be a bank holiday, and many people get married on bank holidays or on Sundays in some areas. These things happen and we are providing contingencies for them but it is felt that it is best that the person would appear before the registrar to ensure that all the documentation is correct. A consular would not be adept at dealing with many of the permutations and considerations that a registrar might face and it would be unfair to expect that. If exceptional circumstances arise where people are coming home to get married, the registrar would usually facilitate that. I know from a good deal of experience that the mother usually has to sort it out, for some reason or another, and that will be facilitated.