Ned O'Keeffe
Question:148 Mr. E. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health the reason for the delay in issuing a birth certificate to a person (details supplied) in County Cork.
Written Answers. - Registration of Home Birth.
The administration of the registration system is a matter for the Registrar-General of Births and Deaths and for local registrars who operate under his general direction.
I am informed by the Registrar-General that the birth in question — a home birth — had taken place in 1975, and that the parents of the child had neglected at that time to give details to the district registrar as required by law.
As more than a year had elapsed since the birth, the local registrar needed the authority of the Registrar-General to register the event and the application to his office was in respect of that authority. The initial application did not include all the appropriate documentation and it was necessary to write to the parents on several occasions before all the required documentation was completed and returned. Once that occurred, the application was processed in the normal way and the necessary authority to register the birth has now issued to the local registrar. A birth certificate may be obtained from the latter as soon as one of the parents comes forward to register the birth.