Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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415. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the changes her Department has made in respect of information to be included on a birth certificate regarding single parents or adoptions or both; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22711/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I understand that this question relates to the compulsory registration of father’s names in the Register of Births.

On the 19 July, 2013, the Cabinet approved the drafting of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill.

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 their 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 Bill which will be published in the coming weeks.