Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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960. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht what records are available to historians in relation to births, deaths and marriages over the last century in County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1179/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The website www.irishgenealogy.ie,which operates under the auspices of my Department, contains the Indexes to the Civil Records of Irish Births, Deaths and Marriages dating from 1864, with non-Roman Catholic Marriages recorded from 1845. Section 27 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 provides for public online access to register entries in respect of:

- births more than 100 years ago,

- marriages more than 75 years ago, and

- deaths more than 50 years ago.

These provisions in the 2014 Act allow members of the public to directly search these historical registers, via online access, for the first time. My Department works in collaboration with the Department of Social Protection and the General Register Office on this project.

In 2015 the National Library of Ireland launched a website containing images from the Library’s collection of Catholic parish register microfilms. The registers contain records of baptisms and marriages from the majority of Catholic parishes in Ireland and Northern Ireland up to 1880 – see .

Although a census of the Irish population was taken every ten years from 1821 to 1911, the earliest complete surviving Census is for 1901. The 1901 and 1911 Census are both fully searchable online, free of charge, on the National Archives website - see

As well as offering access to the historic Civil Records Indexes, the website www.irishgenealogy.iealso acts as a portal to other important records. A user of the website can now input a search and will see if relevant details appear on any of the linked websites. The user can then link automatically to the results of the search carried out on such websites. Importantly, the system also highlights the variety of information that exists to allow people to search for their ancestors.