Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am pleased to have the opportunity to introduce this important Bill, which will improve and update our civil registration legislation and, in particular, allow parents and bereaved families the opportunity to register a birth, death or stillborn online, update the criteria for stillbirths and provide timely notification of deaths to the State. The new online registration service will be available to persons who have an authenticated standard authentication framework environment, SAFE, identity, in the form of a public services card issued by the Department of Social Protection and a verified MyGovID account, and will operate in parallel with the existing in-person civil registration service provided in local registration offices by the HSE.

The requirement for an online option became evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it was not possible to allow physical attendance by parents at a HSE civil registration office, and as a result of the issues that arose following the cyberattack on the HSE when access to the latter's IT systems was affected. The online registration of a birth, death or stillbirth will provide for resilience in the registration process in the event of any future pandemic or cyberattack incidents and will ensure that registration can occur at a time and place convenient to members of the public. In addition to the online changes to the death registration process, this Bill will provide for the electronic notification of a death, ensuring an accurate and timely gathering of death information for the State.

There is continued close co-operation between the Department, officials in the Department of Health and the HSE systems development teams concerning the establishment of systems to facilitate the notification of births and deaths to the General Register Office, GRO. They will continue to work together to ensure that the notification system's development will progress in conjunction with the legislation as set out in the Bill.

Another important aspect of the Bill is the provision of interim death certificates to bereaved families confirming the death of their loved ones in cases where the death is subject to an ongoing investigation or inquiry by a coroner. This death certificate will ensure that families can deal with the administrative burdens around the estate of the deceased while the coroner completes his or her duties in respect of the death.

The criteria for assigning stillborn status will be reduced to reflect advances in clinical care. Access to the register of stillbirths will be broadened to additional family members and a record of stillbirths for families who wish to allow public access to the details of their stillborn child will be created. The provision will ensure open access to some records while also recognising and respecting the wishes of those parents who wish to retain the private status of their child’s record in the register of stillbirths.

There are other provisions in the Bill that I intend to speak on as I address the individual sections of the Bill, which I propose to do now. Section 1 provides for the Short Title, construction, collective citation and commencement of the legislation.

Section 2 outlines the definitions of certain legal terms used throughout the legislation.

Section 3 provides for a change in the criteria determining stillbirths by reducing the gestational age limit from 24 weeks to 23 weeks, reducing the minimum weight from 500 g to 400 g and making improved provision for stillbirths where multiple births are concerned. These amendments address recommendations received from the Minister for Health and aligns stillbirth registration with current foetal viability outcomes. This section also provides for a technical amendment to address the need to rectify conflicting insertions of section 2(2)(g) relating to marriages and marriages of convenience into the Civil Registration Act 2004.

Section 4 makes a technical amendment to section 8 of Act of 2004. This will allow an tÁrd-Chláraitheoir to issue guidance on the operation of the civil registration service to superintendent registrars and registrars who are employees of the HSE and have operational responsibility for the operation of the civil registration service on behalf of the State.

Section 5 provides for the online registration of a birth. The online facility will be developed as part of the MyWelfare suite of services delivered by the Department of Social Protection.

Online registration will enable parents to avail of an additional method by which the birth or stillbirth of a child can be registered. The current in-person registration service operated by the HSE throughout the State will be retained.

Section 6 provides for amendments to facilitate the interaction of the national donor-conceived register with the register of births as set out in the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015. This change will ensure the information to be provided by the Minister for Health under the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 will be sent to an tArd-Chláraitheoir.

Section 7 provides for technical amendments to section 25A where there is a failure to agree a surname from both an in-person and an online birth registration. Section 8 provides for the online registration of stillbirths. This legislation will allow parents to register the stillbirth in a similar manner to online births and deaths. This service will be rolled out in line with the addressing of technical issues regarding the uploading of a medical certificate provided to the parents of a stillborn child.

Section 9 provides for the notification of a birth to the civil registration service by a hospital or, if the child was not born in a hospital or other institution, a parent, midwife or a medical practitioner who attended the birth within five working days of the birth. Notification of a birth is a prerequisite to registration of the birth by parents and is an essential control mechanism to ensure there is independent confirmation that a birth has occurred. The notification also provides the related particulars of the parents. The duty to notify the registration service of the birth by the parents where a child is born outside a maternity hospital or without medical supervision is welcomed by the HSE registration staff alongside the provision that a registrar can request certain required information from the parents with regard to such a birth.

Section 10 provides for the establishment of a record of stillbirths. Where there is an entry in the register of stillbirths, certain persons can apply to an tArd-Chláraitheoir to enter details of that entry into the record of stillbirths. Unlike the register of stillbirths, the record of stillbirths will not be closed to the public. This will facilitate those parents who wish to have information in respect of their stillborn child made publicly available. It will be possible for persons to apply for certificates to be printed from the record of stillbirths.

Section 11 provides for an additional method to register deaths using the online facility mentioned previously with regard to the registration of a birth or stillbirth. It also provides for an amendment to the time afforded to the relatives of a deceased person to formally register a death from three months to 28 days from the date of death. This section will help, in association with section 14, which provides for a process of notification of a death, to ensure more timely data on deaths. It also clarifies that the duty on a qualified informant to register a death is contingent on the death not being referred to a coroner under the Coroners Act 1962.

Section 12 provides for instances where a coroner considers the circumstances of a death referred to them under the Coroners Act 1962 and determines that the death can be referred back to the hospital, institution or medical practitioner without the need for the coroner to carry out an inquiry, post mortem or investigation. This reflects the practice whereby a coroner is satisfied that the death referred to them can be registered by the family under section 37 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 with a medically certified cause of death certificate issued to them by a medical practitioner.

Section 13 will enable a death that is referred to a coroner to be entered in the register of deaths before the coroner has determined all the facts of the case. A family member can request a corroborated facts of death certificate from the coroner, bring it to the local registration service and receive an interim death certificate containing the details of the death as confirmed by the coroner. The cause of death and any other facts that remain to be determined by the coroner will be added to the death record when the coroner’s investigation has been completed, and this will finalise the death registration process. Importantly, it enables families of the deceased to receive death certificates while a coroner's investigation is ongoing.

Section 14 introduces a requirement that all deaths occurring within the State are to be notified to an tArd-Chláraitheoir within five working days of a death occurring. This provision is similar to the provision for the notification of births and will serve to ensure for the first time that the State is notified when a death occurs. Notification of a death is an essential step in enabling the functionality for the online death registration process this Bill establishes.

Section 15 provides for a broadening of access to the stillbirth register, both to families of a stillborn child who wish to search or receive copies of entries and to assist the staff of the civil registration service in the provision of searches and certificates. Currently, only the parents of a child recorded in the register or staff of the General Register Office have access to the register.

Section 16 provides for amendments to section 64 to allow the existing mechanisms for corrections and cancellations of entries in a register to apply for entries in a register made using the online registrations process.

Section 17 provides for amendments to section 68 to enable certificates from entries in the online registration process to be used as evidence of a birth, stillbirth or death.

Section 18 provides for references to in-person registration of births, stillbirths and deaths in other Acts or enactments to include online registrations, where applicable.

Section 19 provides for amendments to section 69 dealing with offences to reflect other proposed changes in this Bill to introduce online registration services.

Section 20 provides for amendments to section 70 dealing with penalties to reflect other proposed changes in this Bill to introduce online registration services.

Section 21 provides for amendments to section 73 dealing with the collection of vital statistics to reflect other proposed changes in this Bill to introduce online registration services.

Section 22 provides for amendments to the First Schedule to include required particulars provided in the online registration environment.

Section 23 provides for an amendment to section 51 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 to incorporate the revised definition of “stillbirth” in section 3 and to ensure any future amendments to the "stillbirth definition” will be automatically reflected in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005.

Section 24 provides for an amendment to section 6 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014. Section 6 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 will place a duty on parents registering a birth to provide information about the father of the child, whether the parents of the child are married to each other or not, except in certain specified instances.

As Deputies can see, there are some major amendments in the civil registration process proposed in this Bill. The method of registration of a birth and death has remained relatively unchanged over the past 100 years, and this Bill seeks to modernise the process to make use of changes introduced by the progress of technology and the expectations of the public of improvements to the provision of important public services by the State. There are also important provisions that affect the lives of those who have suffered the pain of a stillbirth and other provisions that will improve the process of death registration for bereaved families.

For now, I want to progress the measures in this Bill as quickly as possible. I intend for civil registration legislation to keep pace with the evolving technical and process improvements in our society and that such changes would be provided for in legislation generally. I look forward to hearing the views of Deputies and working with them to progress this important legislation as quickly as possible. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, and I commend this Bill to the House.

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