Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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178. To ask the Minister for Social Protection with regard to the registration of a birth here, if a mother or father, who was not in a position to present as an informant at the time of the registration of the birth at the Registrar's Office, can subsequently have the birth certificate of their child amended so that they can be recorded as an informant of the birth on the birth certificate; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47957/13]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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179. To ask the Minister for Social Protection with regard to the written text of the birth certificate, if she has plans to amend the wording Faisnéiseoir A/Informant A and Faisnéiseoir B/Informant B contained within this document, to better reflect that the informants are the parents present at the registration of the birth at the Registrar's Office; if she has plans to remove the wording Sonraí Neamh-chláraithe /Details Not Registered in the case of their being only one informant present at the registration of the birth; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47958/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 178 and 179 together.

Section 19 of the Civil Registration Act, 2004 requires the parent or parents of a child to attend at the office of a registrar within 3 months of the birth, to give the registrar the required particulars relating to the birth and to sign the register in the presence of the registrar. All reasonable measures are taken to ensure that the parents fulfil this duty.

However, in cases where the parents are dead or are incapable of acting by reason of ill-health or for other reasons, section 19(6) of the Act provides for other qualified informants who may provide the required particulars. This means that a person other than the parent or parents may act to register the birth where the parents cannot do so.

The signature of a qualified informant is evidence only of the fact that this was the person who gave the required particulars to the registrar and as such is a matter of fact which cannot be altered.

For Birth Certificates issued after 22nd July 2013, the box Faianeiseora B/Informant B no longer appears where only one qualified informant attends to register the birth. As a consequence of this the text Sonraí Neamh-chláaithe / Details Not Registered no longer appears on the certificate in these cases.

As the qualified informants can be persons other the parents there are no plans to amend the existing wording Faisnéiseoir A/Informant A and Faisnéiseoir B/Informant B.