Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 1334: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the circumstances under which a father's name on a birth certificate may be altered or deleted and the procedure for doing so. [30687/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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An tArd Chlaráitheoir (Registrar General) is the person with statutory responsibility for the administration of the civil registration system in Ireland, including civil marriages. I have made enquiries with an tArd Chlaráitheoir and the position is as follows. There are two provisions that allow for the removal of the particulars of a man named as father of a child in an entry in the register of births and, if appropriate, the amendment of the entry by the addition of the biological father's particulars.

Section 65 of the Civil Registration Act, 2004 allows the Registrar General to hold an enquiry in order to examine any entry and to determine whether the entry is correct and complete and, if it is not, to cause the correction or completion of the entry. The Registrar General will consider all submissions and evidence put before him in the course of an enquiry under section 65 as to the parentage of a child. In order to remove or amend the father's particulars, proofs of the paternity of the child to whom the entry relates are required, such as DNA or other paternity analysis from a reliable laboratory. It is important that the samples sent for analysis should be taken by a registered medical practitioner or other qualified person who can certify that the samples were taken from the named individuals concerned: Tests where the chain of control of the samples cannot be independently verified cannot be accepted as conclusive evidence.

In addition, statutory declarations from the mother, the man named as father in the entry and (if applicable), the biological father are required.

Under section 35 of the Status of Children Act, 1987, it is open to a person (or, if the person is a minor, to a person acting as the child's next friend) to apply for a declaration of parentage. Such declarations may be granted by a judge of the Circuit Family Law Court and are binding upon the State. A Superintendent Registrar, if furnished with a certified copy of a declaration of parentage and a statutory declaration from a qualified informant, may correct an error of fact relating to the parentage of a child in an entry in the register of births under the provisions of section 63 of the Civil Registration Act 2004.