BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES REGISTRATION ACT, 1972

AN ACT TO AMEND AND EXTEND THE BIRTHS AND DEATHS REGISTRATION ACTS, 1863 TO 1952, AND TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN AMENDMENTS TO ENACTMENTS RELATING TO THE REGISTRATION OF MARRIAGES. [29th November, 1972]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

“the Acts” means the Births and Deaths Registration Acts, 1863 to 1952;

“health board” means a health board established under the Health Act, 1970.

2 Appointment of registrars.

2.—(1) Where a vacancy in the office of registrar of births and deaths for a registration district exists at the passing of this Act or occurs subsequently—

• (a) the chief executive officer of the health board in whose functional area the registration district is situate shall, subject to such directions as may be issued by an tArd-Chláraitheoir from time to time, appoint a person to be the registrar for that registration district;

• (b) section 23 of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Ireland) Act, 1863, shall, from the beginning of the section to “as the case may be, of the dispensary district”, cease to have effect in relation to that registration district.

• (2) The office of registrar shall not be an office under a health board.

3 Authority to register birth or death without attendance, signature of informant.

3.—Where none of the persons who under the Acts have the duty to give to a registrar information of the particulars to be registered concerning a birth or death is available to attend at the office of the registrar and to sign the register or could do so only with undue hardship, an tArd-Chláraitheoir may, if satisfied that the circumstances so warrant and on submission to him of the information required, authorise and require the registrar to register the birth or death without the attendance and signature of any of those persons.

4 Registration of certain births and deaths occurring outside the State.

4.—(1) This section applies to the birth outside the State of a child of an Irish citizen domiciled in the State and to the death outside the State of an Irish citizen domiciled in the State, where—

• (a) there was not at the time of the birth a system of registration of births or at the time of the death a system of registration of deaths, or

• (b) it is not possible to obtain copies of or extracts from civil records of the birth or death.

• (2) An tArd-Chláraitheoir may, on production of such evidence as appears to him to be satisfactory, cause a birth or death to which this section applies to be registered in the appropriate register to be maintained in Oifig an Ard-Chláraitheora.

• (3) The register in which a birth is entered and the register in which a death is entered under subsection (2) shall be deemed to be registers maintained under the Acts, and the Acts shall apply and have effect accordingly.

• (4) After the passing of this Act, no entries shall be made in the Foreign Register kept pursuant to section 41 of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Ireland) Act, 1863.

5 Amendment, adaptation and modification of certain enactments.

5.—(1) The Minister for Health may by regulations prescribe the form and manner in which information required to be registered concerning a birth, death or marriage is collected and maintained and the person by whom the information is to be given and for those purposes may by the regulations make such amendments to and adaptations and modifications as may be necessary of the following provisions:

• (a) sections 15, 16, 30, 47 and 48 of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Ireland) Act, 1863;

• (b) sections 6, 13, 14 and 15 of the Registration of Marriages (Ireland) Act, 1863; and

• (c) sections 1, 10, 11 and 27 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Ireland), 1880.

• (2) Every regulation made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder.

6 Amendment of section 28 of Births and Deaths Registration Act (Ireland), 1880.

6.—Section 28 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Ireland), 1880, is hereby amended by the insertion after “in pursuance of section six of this Act” of “or of a registration made on the authority of an tArd-Chláraitheoir”.

7 Amendment of section 2 (5) of Vital Statistics and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1952.

7.—Section 2 (5) of the Vital Statistics and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1952, shall not operate to prevent the disclosure of information to which that subsection relates to persons engaged in medical or social research or to medical officers of health boards where the Minister for Health consents to such disclosure and in accordance with the terms of the consent.

8 Short title, construction and collective citation.

8.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1972.

• (2) The Acts and so much of this Act as relates to the registration of births and deaths shall be construed together as one and may be cited together as the Births and Deaths Registration Acts, 1863 to 1972.