Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 5 Apr 2000

Vol. 517 No. 4

Written Answers. - Registration Service.

Ruairí Quinn

Ceist:

59 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Health and Children the improvements in regard to access and services planned for the General Register Officer in Dublin following a recent spate of complaints regarding its deteriorating service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9917/00]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

The administration of the registration system, including the services and facilities provided at Joyce House is statutorily a matter for An tArd-Chláraitheoir – Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and for superintendent registrars and registrars who operate under his general direction.

I presume the Deputy is referring to the planned development of registration services. The special project to capture the records of births, deaths and marriages and associated indexes dating back to 1845 in an electronic format has been ongoing in Roscommon for some time. This is a major project involving the creation of an electronic data base of four million register pages, 20 million separate entries, and the scanning of the associated printed indexes to provide a machine readable index. When completed, this project will provide for a more efficient and flexible access to the archival records and the associated indexes and will provide potential for the development of a range of services, which would not be possible in a system reliant on printed indexes. This initiative will benefit all customers of the registration service. The estimated cost at completion is £6.225 million and the projected completion date is mid-2002.

The Deputy will also be aware of the major ongoing review of the registration service involving my Department, the Department of Social Community and Family Affairs and the General Register Office. This review is examining the entire registration system including its structure and procedures, the legislation governing the system and the potential for the use of information technology in the registration of births, deaths and marriages to bring about the changes necessary to provide a modern and effective service. The estimated cost of this project is £7.3 million and the completion date is 2002.

In the interim a number of measures have been taken to maintain the services in the General Register Office. The Registration of Births and Deaths Acts 1863 to 1996 and the Marriages Acts of 1844 and 1863 provide,inter alia, that An t-Árd Chláraitheoir – Registrar General of Births Deaths and Marriages – shall compile and make available an index to records of births deaths and marriages held at his office. Persons are entitled to search these indexes, which are in printed and bound format, on the payment of the approved fees and to obtain certified copies of entries – certificates – identified form the index. In addition, persons engaged in family research who do not require certificates may purchase photocopies of the entries which contain all details in the register at a lesser cost. There are more than 600 such index books, which are maintained through a programme of repair and replacement.

It will be appreciated that the growth in interest in family research has resulted in an increase in the number of users of this particular facility and an increase in the demand for copies of entries. It has been necessary to allocate resources to meet this additional demand through the mechanism of overtime and the redeployment of staff. Additional space was provided in the public reading room in Joyce House in July 1999 which significantly increased the number of seats available. A tender has been approved for additional improvements to the environment of the reading room and this work is due to commence shortly.