Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 717: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the procedures regarding registration of deaths; the situation regarding the registration of deaths of citizens killed abroad and the law as it applies to the registration of their deaths here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1303/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The provisions and procedures governing the registration of deaths in Ireland are contained in Part 5 of the Civil Registration Act, 2004.

Where a death occurs in the State it is the duty of a qualified informant (normally a relative of the deceased) to attend at a registrar's office and register the death on foot of a certificate of cause of death supplied by a registered medical practitioner. Where a death is referred to a coroner, the death is registered by a registrar on foot of a coroner's certificate.

In general, only deaths which occur within the State are registerable. Exceptions apply under the provisions of section 39 of the Act, concerning;

o deaths of members of the Garda Síochána or the Permanent Defence Force or of the spouse or specified members of the family of such a member outside the State while the member is serving outside the State as such member,

o deaths of persons on board an Irish aircraft or an Irish ship,

o deaths of Irish citizens on board a foreign ship or a foreign aircraft travelling to or from a port, or an airport, as the case may be, in the State.

Where the death of an Irish citizen domiciled in the State occurs abroad, the death may only be registered here if there was not at the time of the death a system of registration of deaths in the place where the death occurred, or such a system that applied to such a death, or it is not possible to obtain copies of or extracts from civil records of the death.

Where an Irish citizen dies abroad and the death is registered by the civil authorities of the place where the death occurred, a certified copy of the death registration, translated, if necessary, is sufficient for all legal and administrative purposes here and there is no legal necessity for the event to be entered in the register of deaths in the State.