Vol. 553 No. 3
132 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reasons the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2002, provides for every child being given an RSI number at birth; the reason the parents' RSI numbers are also required; the provisions in this regard which have been made for single mothers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14013/02]
The Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2002, provides for the amendment of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages Acts to facilitate the implementation of the first stage of the modernisation programme for the civil registration service. In particular, it provides for the introduction of electronic registers of births and deaths and the electronic production of certificates of birth, death and marriage.
The implementation of electronic registration procedures is a key first step underpinning the integration of public services and delivery of e-government objectives which will be implemented via the public service broker currently being developed by the REACH agency operating under the aegis of my Department. The building blocks for this new service were put in place with the legislation introduced by my predecessor, Deputy Dermot Ahern, in 1998 providing for the use of the personal public service number as a public service identifier and as a framework for the sharing of information between public service agencies for specified services. The 1998 legislation specified an tArd Chlariatheoir as a body which could use the PPS number as an identifier. The inclusion of relevant PPS numbers in the 2002 Act is the practical application of this objective. Over time, this will mean that records of births, marriages and deaths will be linked through the use of the PPS number. This linking of events will provide assistance in the future for checking that people are free to marry and that a deceased person's identity cannot be abused.
The Act provides for the inclusion of both the child's and his or her parents' PPS numbers in the registration of a birth and also makes provision for the registration of a deceased person's PPS number in the registration of a death. However, the Act specifically provides that the certificates of both births and deaths will not include the PPS numbers of the persons concerned. The Act provides that the personal data collected at birth registration will also be used for the purpose of allocating a person's personal public service number. The inclusion of the parents' PPS numbers is designed to facilitate the parents or parent acting on behalf of the child in dealing with public service agencies. The above requirements apply equally in the case of marital and non-marital births when registering her child's birth. Thus a single mother is required to furnish details of her own PPS number and that of the father, where his details are being included in the register.
