Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for her good wishes and also for bringing this issue to my attention. I know that she raised it previously with the former Minister, Heather Humphreys. For the benefit of other Senators, the background to this is that the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 principally amends and extends the Civil Registration Act 2004. The Act was signed into law on 4 December 2014. The Act contains 36 sections that are, in the main, all subject to commencement orders. Seanadóirí will be aware that the sections referring to the law relating to marriages contained under Part 6 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 were commenced in 2015 and these sections primarily referred to marriages of convenience cases. Other sections were commenced in 2016 and 2020.

Section 6 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 referred to by Senator Keogan introduces new provisions relating to the registration of the father where the parents are not married to one another. This section sets out that the mother, if she attends alone, is required to name the father of the child, with exceptions applying. Registration of the father would then be dependent on the man acknowledging paternity of the child. Commencement of these provisions was subject to preparatory work and training of the registrars by the HSE and the General Register Office. That training was delivered in early 2020. However, prior to commencement of the provisions in 2020 a technical error was discovered in the relevant amending legislation. This technical error was corrected in the recently enacted Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Act 2024. This Act was signed by the Uachtarán in July 2024. This will now facilitate the commencement of section 6, to which the Senator referred.

The Senator will appreciate that, given the passage of time since training relating to this provision was originally delivered, as well as the outbreak of the pandemic and the turnover in HSE registration staff, further engagement with the HSE was required to ensure operational readiness prior to commencing the legislation. However, associated with an industrial relations issue within the HSE, staff in the registration service were not co-operating with the roll-out of the training required for the implementation of section 6. It is the understanding of the Department that the issues surrounding the implementation of section 6 are resolved. My officials in the GRO are engaging with the HSE and superintendent registrars to seek to arrange for the delivery of the required training at the earliest opportunity. Commencement of section 6 will happen as soon as this training is completed. I anticipate that will take place before the end of quarter 2 of this year. I will continue to keep Senator Keogan updated and to engage with her on this issue. I thank her for drawing my attention to it.