Revolutionary legislation aimed at transforming the keeping of public records is being seen as an insult to men. Marie O'Halloran reports
Parents of a baby born on a Monday could have child benefit in their accounts by Thursday. Wedding ceremonies will no longer have to take place exclusively in a church or registry office. And an individual seeking various benefits will have to do only one means test, rather than a separate one for each health or social welfare benefit.
These are among the advantages of a revolutionary piece of legislation, the Civil Registration Bill, which the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan, believes is a "flagship initiative" which will cut red tape.
Once the Bill becomes law, all life events including births, deaths, marriages, stillbirths and adoptions, will be kept on electronic rather than paper registers. New registers for divorce and civil nullity will also be established. According to the Minister's figures some 60,000 births, 400 stillbirths, 250 Irish adoptions, 336 foreign adoptions, 20,000 marriages and 30,000 deaths were registered in 2002.
But parts of the Bill have provoked allegations of discrimination and extensive debate in the Dáil. The legislation requires that when a couple is married, both mother and father must supply detailed information about themselves.
If the couple is not married, however, the father is not obliged to supply information. If there is co-operation there is no problem, otherwise a court order is required to put the father's name on the certificate.
The provision has been dubbed a "lads' charter", letting men "off the hook" and discriminating against women. The Law Society made a submission to the Minister last month expressing concern about the practicality of the clause, and the voluntary organisation Parental Equality, which supports shared parenting, says it is insulting to men. Its chairman, Liam Ó Gogain, describes the section as "continuing the downgrading of the concept of fatherhood". He says it is creating a culture where the State views fatherhood as optional and "by inference unimportant".
It is a "fundamental insult", embedding a view of unmarried fathers as "feckless" and he adds that while it "might be a lads' charter, it is not a dads'
charter".
Margaret Dromey, director of Treoir, the federation of services for unmarried parents, believes the big loser is the child. The legislation was "bad draftsmanship" and a lost opportunity to do what was best for children. "A child has a right to know who they are and to know who both parents are." Part of the problem in acrimonious cases is the "myth that the father gets rights by having his name on the certificate. He doesn't."
Increasingly, the father's name goes on the birth certificate, but still in only 70 per cent of cases, even if the father wants to be included. "The woman has the veto." She says the Bill could have moved in the direction of making registration of both parents the norm, except in very sensitive or distressing cases.
"Instead it operates the other way around," and Dromey believes it will be challenged in the courts. However, the Minister said in the Dáil that the emphasis was on facilitating the registration of the child's father's details through the co-operation of both parents.
Coughlan insisted the section complied with "best practice" and pointed out that "there would be practical and legal difficulties for a registration in requiring a man to register the birth of a child without paternity being conclusively established".
One of the requirements of the legislation is the inclusion of the Personal Public Service (PPS) number and the Bill specifically states that information will be shared with designated Government departments and agencies.
Since September 2003 every newborn child is automatically allocated a PPS number when their birth is registered and this information is transferred electronically to the Department of Social and Family Affairs. This will initiate child benefit for a first-born child and automatic payment will be made for subsequent children.
Thereafter, every life event will be included in the electronic register and triggered by the PPS number. It will eliminate lengthy paper application forms and reduce attempts at fraud.
But the sharing of amassed information has prompted some concern. Labour's Social and Family Affairs spokesman, Willie Penrose, stresses the need for care in giving out this information and believes the Bill aims to "suit the bureaucracy of administration as opposed to recognising the rights of people involved". He considers that it is "almost like a tracking device" on people at every stage of their lives and that it will have the effect of reducing the individual's right to privacy.
In embedding such a system the State is following the example of other EU states and the US, but the Westmeath TD says that "we may well have a different view in Ireland and the Government should take cognisance of the historical situation". A lot of people "live quietly" and this system will affect their "right to anonymity".