Vol. 476 No. 7
97 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Health if he will have investigations made into the case of a person (details supplied) who is the holder of an Irish passport but who cannot get a birth certificate in his country of birth in view of the fact that his father, an Irishman, is deemed a nonnational; and if he will supply an Irish birth certificate in the circumstances. [8168/97]
Limerick East): The administration of the registration system is statutorily a matter of An tArd-Chláraitheoir (Registrar-General) of Births, Deaths and Marriages. As previously advised in relation to a similar question answered on 26 February 1997, the registration in the State of a birth or death event occurring outside the State is subject to a number of conditions set down in section 4 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1972. Among these conditions is the requirement that evidence to the satisfaction of An tArd-Chláraitheoir must be produced to the effect that the applicant, an Irish citizen, was domiciled in the State at the time of the birth of the child in a foreign country. I understand that evidence available to An tArd-Chláraitheoir indicates that these domiciliary requirements have not been clearly established and accordingly the birth in question may not be entered in the register.
I should also mention that among the other conditions set down in section 4 of the above mentioned Act, is a condition that the section shall apply where there was not at the time of the birth a system for the registration of births in the country in which the child was born. In this particular case, I understand that the birth of the child, referred to by the Deputy, may be registered under the system of registration which applies in the country in question.
