Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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569. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the main measures that will be contained in new legislation to have fathers' names on birth certificates becoming compulsory for the first time; if her attention has been drawn to circumstances where a couple have separated and the mother subsequently has a child with her new partner, before the divorce comes through on her first marriage; in view of the four-year waiting period in circumstances like these if she would be mandated to put the separated husband or the father of the child down on the birth certificate; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37114/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The legislation currently being drafted to amend the Civil Registration Act, 2004 will provide for the compulsory registration of father's names on birth certificates so as to ensure, where possible, that a child has a record of their father.

In cases where a woman gives birth to a child while she is in an existing marriage or within a period of 10 months after the termination of that marriage, the husband in that marriage is presumed to be the father of the child, as provided for in Section 46 of the Status of Children Act, 1987.

At present, Section 22 of the Civil Registration Act, 2004 provides that the husband shall not be registered as the father of the child where:

- the husband makes a statutory declaration that he is not the father of the child;

- the mother makes a statutory declaration that she has been living apart from her husband during the period of 10 months ending immediately before the birth of the child by virtue of a decree of divorce, a decree of divorce a mensa et thoro , a decree of nullity of marriage or a deed of separation;

- the mother or the father produces an order made by a court in proceedings referred to in Section 45 of the Status of Children Act, 1987 finding that the person is the father of the child.

The issues surrounding the registration of a father's name on a birth certificate are currently under consideration in my Department as part of the draft legislation to amend the Civil Registration Act, 2004.