Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The sections in the Civil Registration Bill 2019 concerning registration, and re-registration, of births of donor-conceived children will come into operation as soon as the relevant sections in Part 9 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 (CFRA 2015) are commenced. Commencement of these sections is the responsibility of the Minister for Justice and Equality and, as stated in the Dáil during  Committee Stage of the Bill, I will be requesting that the commencement is made as soon as possible.

Bringing these provisions into operation also depends on commencement of Parts 2 and 3 of CFRA 2015, which includes provisions for determination of parentage of door-conceived children. This is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Health, who is working to commence these Parts before the summer recess.

When all of this necessary legislation is commenced it will then be possible for couples to re-register the births of their children, on foot of a Court Order obtained under section 21 or section 22 in Part 2 of CFRA 2015.

The Civil Registration Service is operationally ready to carry out the re-registrations.