Madam, – Foreign embassies are not the only ones flouting the Civil Registration Act 2004 (Front page, March 10th). Closer to home, the State’s coroners appear equally to pay little regard to the Act’s provisions.
Since civil registration first began in 1864 all death registrations have noted the deceased’s name, date and place of death, home address, age, marital status and occupation.
However, since the commencement of the Civil Registration Act in November 2007 it is now a requirement that each deceased’s date and place of birth and parents’ names are also recorded.
Yet in alarming numbers coroners continue to register deaths omitting this vital data.
One Dublin-based registrar recently informed the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations that they believe that “coroners are following a practice which causes the least inconvenience to themselves and their own work.”
In an opinion article in this newspaper (“Irish death records are seen to lack integrity”, January 26th, 2004) Steven Smyrl, one of the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations’ executive liaison officers, made a successful call for this extra information to be recorded in all future death registrations.
I now call upon the recently established Coroner Service (which is overseen by the Minister for Justice, Equality Law Reform, Dermot Ahern) to immediately deal with what can only be described as a quite unacceptable and slovenly practice. – Yours, etc,