Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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115. To ask the Minister for Social Protection when the legislation requiring mandatory naming of a child's father on a birth certificate will be brought forward. [43001/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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On the 19 July, 2013, the Cabinet approved the drafting of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill 2013.

One of the proposals I am seeking to introduce in this Bill is to amend the Civil Registration Act 2004 by making it an obligation in the birth registration process to include the father's particulars on a birth certificate so as to ensure that the child will have a record of the father.

Compulsory joint registration of a birth so as to include the father's name on the birth certificate was recommended by the Law Reform Commission, in its 2010 report on Legal Aspects of Family Relationships.

The Department is currently working with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government on the drafting of the heads of the Bill and I hope to introduce legislation early next year.