LEGISLATION TO enable the deaths of Irish nationals abroad to be registered at home should be introduced, according to an Oireachtas committee.
The Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs yesterday unanimously recommended altering the relevant legislation in order to enable deaths of Irish citizens who have died abroad to be registered here.
Currently, most deaths of Irish citizens overseas can only be registered within the country where the death occurs; therefore an Irish death certificate cannot be obtained in deaths arising abroad.
The relatives of an individual who died overseas addressed the committee yesterday, outlining the hurt and distress that the provision had caused them.
The parents of the late Keith O’Reilly from Co Galway, who died in a swimming accident last July in the United States, said that not being able to register the death in Ireland meant they cannot gain closure.
“Without a record of registration of Keith’s death here in Ireland, it will forever feel as though a piece of him remains stranded across a vast ocean, miles from family, miles from home,” his mother Yvonne O’Reilly said.
The committee will now contact the Minister for Social and Family Affairs asking him to amend the relevant section of the Civil Registration Act 2004 to allow deaths abroad to be registered in Ireland.
In the last three years, 598 Irish citizens have died outside this country.
In 2009, 244 Irish people died abroad. More than 40 Irish nationals have died overseas so far this year.