Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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1389. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his views on creating a statutory to recognise a child that does not conform to world health organisation stillbirth standards of less than 500 grammes and a gestational age of less than 24 weeks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46317/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The General Register Office (GRO) is the statutory authority for the registration of life events and is the central repository for records relating to births, stillbirths, adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in Ireland.

In August 2024, the Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Act 2024, following recommendations from the HSE’s National Women & Infants Health Programme (NWIHP), reduced the gestational age for entry to the register of stillbirths to not less than 23 weeks and reduced the birth weight to 400 grammes.

Developing a registration process for loss of pregnancy outside these thresholds would need careful consideration taking into account the time periods specified in the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act) 2018. I believe that policy consideration of any initiatives in this area is primarily that of the Department of Health with clinical advice from the HSE.

My Department would be available to meet with the Department of Health to assist in any way we can.