Joint Committee on Social Protection publishes report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of General Scheme of Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Bill 2023

The General Scheme of the Bill was referred to the Committee in June 2023 and in its pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill, the Committee met earlier this month with officials from the Department of Social Protection and invited submissions from interested groups or individuals.

The report of the Committee makes seven recommendations to be included in the draft legislation covering four key issues:

• Online registration of births and deaths;
• Notification of deaths;
• Stillbirth registration and access to stillbirth register;
• Cases involving a coroner inquest.

Committee Cathaoirleach Denis Naughten TD said: “The Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Bill 2023 is an important piece of legislation which will provide for a wide range of issues relating to the registration of life events in the State – in particular births, stillbirths, and deaths – and will amend the Civil Registration Act 2004. The Civil Registration Service operates under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection.

“Under this Act, local registration services are provided by the Health Service Executive through the Civil Registration Services, with offices located nationwide delivering registration services directly to the public. The need for an online registration option became widely evident during the Covid-19 pandemic when physical attendance at a HSE civil registration offices were restricted.

“The current arrangements whereby a person must attend in person before a registrar are largely unchanged since the 1800s. There is now an opportunity to reflect on the developments in technology and on opportunities for improved customer service.

“This Bill provides for greater flexibility for persons seeking to register life events as they will no longer need to attend in person. In addition, the introduction of a requirement for hospitals and GPs to provide notification of deaths will result in improved and more timely collection of statistics on deaths.”

The Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Bill 2023 is available on the Oireachtas website.

The Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands had 13 Members, eight from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.