Vol. 545 No. 5
73 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to the call made by a person (details supplied) for the establishment of a central register of deaths to allow better monitoring of death certificates and ensure that unusual trends are detected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30890/01]
The administration of the registration system is a matter for An tArd-Chláraitheoir, the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and for local registrars who operate under his general direction.
As the Deputy may be aware, my Department and the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs have been engaged in the review of the entire registration system. The review examined the structure of registration on a national basis in order to identify the changes needed to capitalise on the use of modern computer technology to capture registration information in an electronic format at the point of registration. The objective is to implement a modern efficient effective and customer focused service geared to the needs of the 21st century. The modernisation of the registration service will improve the efficiency, flexibility, access and management of the records and the associated indexes. The matter raised by the Deputy had been noted by the project team. The modernisation project has received submissions from a number of parties, including coroners, following the launch of its consultation document last May. This consultation process is continuing.
The maintenance of records in a database format provides potential for the development of a range of services, which would not be possible in a system reliant on printed indexes
