Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 176: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to a recent report suggesting that the provisions of the Civil Registration Act 2004 are not being fully complied with, in particular the registration of the deceased's date and place of birth and full parents' names under sections 37 and 41 of the Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17118/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, 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. Under the provisions of section 37 of the Act, where a death occurs in the State and the deceased dies in a medical institution or was under a general practitioner's care within a month of the death, a registered medical practitioner must provide a medical certificate of cause of death to a qualified person (normally a relative of the deceased). That person must, within 3 months of the death, register the death by giving to the registrar the particulars required to register the death.

Where a death is referred to a coroner, section 41 of the Act provides that the coroner shall give the appropriate registrar a certificate containing the required particulars of the death. The registrar shall register the death based on the information contained in the certificate. The particulars required to register a death are set out in Part 5 of the First Schedule to the Act. The Schedule sets out the maximum information that may be contained in an entry in relation to a death and, on occasion, there may be particulars that are simply not known or available to the qualified informant or to a coroner.

In cases where a death has been registered without one or more of the required particulars, it is open to any interested party, who has information relating to any omission from an entry, to apply to the Registrar General to complete the entry, pursuant to an enquiry conducted under the provisions of section 65 of the Act.