As the Deputy will be aware, I answer on behalf of the Central Statistics Office in regard to statistics compiled by it. In September of last year, a new automatic civil registration system was introduced which includes a question on nationality. Prior to that, such a question was not asked on the manual forms. While only approximately 16% of all birth notifications are dealt with by the automatic system at present, as time goes on we will have better information on this.
However, there are exceptions. The Rotunda Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, have recorded data on nationality for the majority of births as they introduced their own notification forms since 2001. While I answer on behalf of the CSO, there is also factual information from the three Dublin maternity hospitals, which I obtained from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and would like to share with the Deputy. The three Dublin maternity hospitals deal with the majority of births in the country. There was a total of 5,471 births to non-Irish nationals for 2003, of which 4,407 were to mothers from outside the US, UK or European Union. It is interesting to note that in the past two years births to non-nationals in the three hospitals totalled more than 10,000. In 2002, 20% of all births were to non-nationals and the figure was 24% for 2003.
The census of population shows that non-nationals accounted for 9% of the population in Dublin city and county yet accounted for 24% of births. Despite the fact that EU nationals represent approximately 60% of non-nationals resident in the State, they account for just 18% of births to non-nationals. Further statistical information that would be of interest in the context of the question asked is that births to Nigerian and Romanian nationals in the Dublin maternity hospitals in 2003 totalled 1,984, approximately 44% of births to non-EU nationals.
It is clear there is factual information from the three Dublin hospitals dealing with the issue. While we do not have the same facts and statistics from all the hospitals in the country because the CSO does not at present compile such information, it will be in a position to do so when the automatic registration system is extended throughout the country.