Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The other issue is that if we introduce the term "initiate and shall on request by an interested person in writing", the Ard Chláraitheoir could not, of his or her own volition, carry out an inquiry. The Ard Chláraitheoir may discover, for example, that a double registration of a birth occurred. If he or she is restricted, an investigation can only be done on the request and at the behest of someone else as opposed to being done on the registrar's initiative. We would, therefore, be limiting the registrar to a huge degree. We could have a situation where we would restrict the registrar's initiative or where an investigation would have to take place in respect of a spurious matter. I agree with the Senator that inquiries must be carried out. People will always have recourse to the appeals mechanism.