Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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604. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a death registered before the enactment of the amended section 37 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 can have the qualified informant to the registration of a death, cohabitant, added to a death certificate as this does not alter the facts of the death in any way; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13015/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Section 37 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 was amended with effect from 20 November 2020 to allow additional persons, including cohabitants, to act as qualified informants for the purposes of registering the death of a loved one. This new provision sought to address the issue of cohabitants not being officially recognised for the purposes of registering the death.

Previously, the duty to register a death fell to a family member or civil partner to the exclusion of cohabitants unless no other relative was available to do so.

The legislative measures introduced from 20 November 2020 are not retrospective in nature. This means that any deaths registered prior to this date cannot be amended to show “cohabitant” as a qualified informant.

I hope that this clarifies the position for the Deputy.