The current position is that the Registration of Births and Deaths Acts 1863 to 1996 and the Marriages Acts of 1844 and 1863 provide that An t-Árd Chláraitheoir shall retain certified copies of the records of births, deaths and marriages returned to him on a quarterly basis by local registrars and that he shall compile and make available an index to such records at his office. Persons are entitled, under statute, to search these indexes on the payment of the approved fees and to obtain certified copies of entries identified from the index.
The joint programme of work, aimed at modernising the Civil Registration Service, which is being undertaken by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs and my Department, involves the review of the entire registration system, including registration law, the structure of registration on a national basis in order to identify the changes necessary to capitalise on the use of modern technology to capture registration information in an electronic format. As part of this programme a consultation document, "Bringing Civil Registration into the 21st Century" was published and the public were invited to offer their views and opinions on the future shape of the service. As the Deputy may appreciate, there has been a large volume of responses to the consultation document on a range of issues, including access to registration and index data. These responses are currently being collated and analysed. It is expected that decisions will be made over the coming months when all factors are taken into account.
The civil registration modernisation programme envisages the completion of the pilot programme for a new computerised registration service in March 2002.
