Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Let us go beyond this and imagine it is compulsory for the father to register. What difficulties would result from this? It would put an onus on the State to determine paternity. One can imagine the mess that would create. Also, prima facie evidence of paternity would be required to register a birth where the parents are not married. Hospitals, GPs and midwives could not act as qualified informants as they would not be in a position to name the father. If they did name the father without the necessary evidence it would leave them and the State open to litigation. As Members know, we facilitated registration through the qualified informant.

Surrogacy and donor insemination would present particular difficulties. In cases of under age pregnancies, incest and rape, if the father was named the State would be obliged to take criminal proceedings. I have come to the conclusion that all we can do as Members of either House is to actively encourage fathers to put their names down on the birth register. If there is anything we can do, in terms of providing information, to encourage fathers to register we will consider that. We have done this on the basis of facilitating people as much as possible in registration.

The reason we do not have the figures requested by Senator Henry is that we only have statistics for hospitals in which there is electronic registration, which has not yet been set up in Dublin. Once that is available, I will forward the figures to any Member who is interested.

Although I agree that Senator Brian Hayes's aim is laudable, this amendment may not be the right way of dealing with the matter. This is an example of how a number of issues raised on the floor of the House, although very sensible, could lead us into some strange and difficult legal tangles. On the basis of the information I have I feel that compelling fathers to register may not be the best way forward. Rather, encouragement, not only within the registration process but also within any other process such as parenting, is the way forward.