Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 327: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if there are circumstances in which a fada or other accent would be excluded from a certificate of birth, death or marriage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9881/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Section 61 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 provides that a true copy of an entry in any register must be provided to any person upon payment of a prescribed fee.

Accordingly a certificate of birth, death or marriage must contain the fada or other accent where it is contained in the entry in the register. The details of an entry in a register are as provided by a qualified informant prior to registration.

The current computerised registration system was introduced in 2003 and it replaced the manual system. While this system is highly successful and does cater for the fada, it does not cater for some characters or accents particular to some European and other languages for the purposes of registration. Consequently, the absence of these is also reflected in certificates of entries where relevant.