Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for introducing this extremely important topic as a Commencement matter. I am pleased to take it on behalf of my senior colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys.

As the Senator will be aware, the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act principally amends and extends the Civil Registration Act 2004 and the Act itself was signed into law on 4 December 2014. Sections referring to the law relating to marriage contained under Part 6 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 were commenced in 2015 and these sections primarily refer to marriages of convenience cases. Other sections were commenced in 2016 and 2020. Sections 6 to 9, inclusive, of the Act, referred to by the Senator, are related to the requirements under Part 3 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 to the registration and re-registration of births.

I am pleased to inform her that sections 7 to 9, inclusive, of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act were commenced on 20 November 2020. Sections 7 and 8 substituted existing legislation concerning the re-registration of births. The new sections permit a birth to be re-registered in circumstances where the mother was not married to the father, amend some of the regulations around acceptance of court orders and provides a new system of rebuttal of paternity in cases where a married mother requests a registrar to re-register a birth with a father who is not her husband.

Section 9 introduces a mechanism around registering a birth where there is a failure between a mother and father to agree a surname for the child.

The only section referred to by the Senator that has not been commenced is, of course, section 6. That section introduces new provisions relating to the registration of the father where the parents are not married to one another. The section sets out that the mother, if she attends alone, is required to name the father of the child, with limited exceptions applying. Registration of the father will then be dependent of the man acknowledging paternity of the child. Commencement of these provisions was subject to the HSE arranging dates and venues for the delivery of training to registrars. This training was delivered in early 2020. However, prior to commencement, a technical error was discovered in the relevant amending legislation. This technical error is required to be corrected and this will be achieved in the forthcoming civil registration (electronic registration) Bill, which, as the Senator will be aware, was considered in pre-legislative scrutiny and approved for drafting by the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development, and the Islands. The Bill is currently with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and is at an advanced stage of drafting. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, looks forward to bringing the Bill to the Oireachtas shortly.

Given the passage of time since the training was delivered and the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, further engagement with the HSE will be needed to ensure operational readiness prior to commencement. I am pleased to inform the Senator that officials in the General Register Office are engaging with the superintendent registrars to have a plan for training in place prior to the commencement of section 6. Officials in the Department of Social Protection are happy to engage directly with the Senator if there are any outstanding questions.