Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 335: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the evidence that persons (details supplied) legally resident in the State need to provide to show that they are free to marry. [26353/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I have made enquiries with the Registrar General and he has informed me that the position is as set out below.

The persons in question met with a registrar in the Dublin Civil Registration Office on 15th March 2010 to give three months notice of intention to marry. At that meeting both parties indicated that they were widowed. On foot of a query raised by the registrar in Dublin, the General Register Office received copies of sworn affidavits by both parties confirming the circumstances of their previous marriages and the subsequent deaths of their spouses.

The law governing marriages in Ireland is the Civil Registration Act, 2004. Section 2(2)(b) of the Act provides that there is an impediment to a marriage if one of the parties to the marriage is, or both are, already married. As the marital status of the parties concerned cannot be independently verified, it is not possible to conclude that they are free to marry in accordance with Irish law. However, if independent evidence of marital status is provided, the matter will be reviewed.