STEVEN C.
Sir, - Regular readers of your Letters page will know that Dublin's General Register Office (GRO) has often been the subject of disgruntled letters. Here is the latest chapter in this long saga.
Currently, proposed legislation before the Dáil (attached to the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2002) proposes to amend the information that in future will be recorded in death registrations. The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations welcomes the Bill's proposal to record, in future, a deceased person's date of birth (rather than age). However, we are greatly concerned that the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, will not accept other, perfectly sensible proposals. These are that in 21st-century Ireland it is also necessary to record a deceased person's place (town or townland, and county or country) of birth and, where the deceased is a married, widowed or divorced woman, the maiden surname.
In last week's Dáil debate during the Bill's report stage, the Minister argued that it would not be necessary to record these details because in future all records of birth, death and marriage will be linked in a Social Welfare-operated database of "through-life-records" using the new "personal public services number" which every citizen in Ireland will soon possess. Unfortunately, the Minister's argument falls short of the point in that this database (quite rightly) will not be open to the general public; in addition, citizens have a habit of contracting business requiring the production of a certificate of birth, death or marriage with organisations other than Irish Government Departments.
In these instances, it is vital that civil records of death record enough facts about the deceased to emphatically establish the deceased's identity. It is worth noting that details relating to date and place of birth and the maiden surname of a married woman have been recorded in death registrations in Northern Ireland since 1973.
In the Dáil last Wednesday, proposals to record the place of birth and maiden name were tabled by Fine Gael's spokesman for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Brian Hayes TD, and these were backed by Labour's spokesman, Thomas Broughan TD. Unfortunately, the subject did not win the Minister's support and the amendments were defeated. However, the Minister hinted that he might be persuaded to look again at this issue before the Bill goes to the Seanad. We implore the Minister to do just that and to seize this opportunity to bring Ireland into line with every other forward-thinking country in the European Union. - Yours, etc.,
STEVEN C.
FFEARY-SMYRL,
Council of Irish
Genealogical Organisations,
Templemore Avenue,
Dublin 6.