John Connor
Ceist:45 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for Health if he will make a statement on the progress in transferring the General Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths to Roscommon town; and his views on the proposal.
Written Answers. - Transfer of Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths.
The proposal to transfer the General Register Office to Roscommon arose in the context of the policy of decentralising Government offices. There are many factors to be considered in deciding on how best to implement the proposal. These include maintenance of an acceptable level of service to the public, need for legislative change, cost, timescale and so on.
The extent to which it is technically feasible and cost effective to computerise the operation of the registration system also has an important bearing on the way in which the re-located office would operate in the future. Preparatory work on a computerisation project is now well advanced and this will require a significant infusion of resources in 1994 and later years. A detailed analysis of the various options for re-location has been carried out by my Department, the outcome of which I am currently considering.