Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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364. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if all births, deaths and marriages are now recorded digitally; if the details of parents and grandparents names, ages, addresses and siblings will be included on the certificates to allow comprehensive genealogical searches for future generations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27117/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Digital registration of births, deaths and marriage records has been in use since late 2003. This, along with the enactment of the Civil Registration Act 2004, modernised the Civil Registration Service.

The details to be recorded in the Registers of Births and Deaths are laid out in the First Schedule of the 2004 Act. Details to be recorded in the Register of Marriages are laid out in Statutory Instrument No. 670 of 2010.

Earlier this month Minister Heather Humphreys and I jointly launched a facility whereby historical records of births (registered more than 100 years ago), marriages (registered more than 75 years ago) and deaths (registered more than 50 years ago) can be accessed online. Access to this facility may be found at www.irishgenealogy.ie. There is no charge for searches of the indexes or registers on the website.

The website will, I am sure, have an enduring interest for not only those of us living in Ireland but for the wider Irish diaspora.