Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 716: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will require the General Register Office to provide, on request, birth certificates with the Irish language versions of persons' names where the births were registered in the English language versions but where the persons normally use the Irish language versions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1226/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The provisions governing the registration of births in Ireland and the issuing of certified copies of entries in the register of births (commonly known as birth certificates) are contained in the Civil Registration Act, 2004.

Parents or other qualified informants may register a birth using either of the official languages of the State, and this has been the case for many years. Section 61 of the Act provides that a true copy of an entry in the register of births must be provided to any person, upon payment of a prescribed fee. Accordingly, true copies of entries that were registered in the English language must be issued in English and entries registered as Gaeilge must be provided in Irish. To issue a certificate containing details other than those registered would be contrary to section 61 of the Act.

An entry in the register of births is a historical record of the facts as pertaining at the time of birth and cannot be updated to reflect changed circumstances. The fact that a person's birth is registered in one or other of the official languages of the State does not impact upon a person's right to be known by either the Irish or English version of their name. A person acquires their name by use and repute under the common law, and there is no requirement in law that a person must be known by the name contained in their birth entry.

If a person who uses a name other than that which is entered in the register of births wishes to have an official record of this, it is open to the person concerned to obtain a change of name by Deed Poll.