Vol. 476 No. 4
50 Mr. Hughes asked the Minister for Health if he will have arrangements made to provide a birth certificate in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo in view of the fact that the Western Health Board do not have details and the general practitioner cannot recall the event. [7236/97]
Limerick East): The administration of the civil registration system is a matter for An tÁrd-Chláraitheoir (Registrar-General) of Births, Deaths and Marriages and for local registrars who act under his general direction.
I understand from inquiries made, that the Deputy may be referring to the birth of a child which occurred in 1963 and that the child in question may have been stillborn. The Stillbirths Registration Act, 1994 (No. 1 of 1994) came into effect on 1 January 1995 and applies in relation to the birth of a child born weighing 500 grammes or more or having a gestational age of 24 weeks or more who shows no sign of life. Prior to the introduction of that Act there was no provision for the registration of stillborn children.
The Stillbirths Registration Act provided, inter alia, for the registration of a stillbirth which had occurred prior to the commencement date of the Act, subject to an application being made by one of the parents of the child and to the provision of satisfactory evidence to the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages that a stillbirth had occurred. I understand that the difficulty in this case may be in relation to the provision of such evidence. In this particular case, An t-Árd Chláraitheoir has suggested that the mother of the child contact the General Register Office at 016711000 extensions 3373 or 3344 to discuss the problem.
