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Minister Doherty publishes Annual Report of the Civil Registration Service
From Department of Social Protection
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The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty T.D., today, published the 2018 Annual Report of the Civil Registration Service.
The Civil Registration Service operates under the aegis of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and consists of the General Register Office based in Roscommon Town and local registration offices provided at 61 locations nationally operated by the Health Service Executive.
On launching the report Minister Doherty said:
“I welcome the opportunity to publish this Annual Report. I want to thank the staff of the General Register Office and the HSE for their work on preparing the report and for giving refreshing and new insight into the essential work of registering life events such as births, deaths and marriages.”
The Civil Registration Service is responsible for registering all life events of citizens and residents in the State. This includes births, marriages, deaths, adoption and stillbirths.
The annual report provides details of activities during 2018. In all, over 115,000 life events were registered. These consisted of 61,901 births, 32,029 deaths and 21,052 marriages. Additionally, 81 adoptions and 223 stillbirths were registered during the year.
Certificates of life events are important for day to day transactions. Just over 405,000 certificates of various types were issued to members of the public during 2018 - issued when a birth, death or marriage was registered but also where required and requested by a member of the public.
Certificates are also issued to members of the public engaged in research into family histories and building family trees as well as to support legal and other family processes.
The number of new entries in the Gender Recognition Register in 2018 was 75. Two of these related to people who were under 18 years of age.
The Minister emphasised the important value members of public placed in the registration services, saying:
“People place great significance in being able to register the life events that impact on their lives and families and for the State, and society more widely, to confer some level of official recognition on these through the registration services. The recording of our life events today means that in years ahead, this vital source of personal history is available for those who come after us.”
The Minister also commented on the work being done in making historic records kept by the General Register Office available to the public. Registration of marriages commenced in Ireland in 1845 – registration of births and deaths followed in 1864. She said:
“The General Register Office has now digitised all of the historic registers compiled by registrars since 1845 and has released all but the earliest marriage and death records on the irishgenealogy.ie website. Some 30 million historical records are now available publicly and, each year, additional birth, death and marriage records are added. I plan to have the last remaining historic marriage and death register records available online later this year to complete the digitisation of all State records of this nature.”
The full Annual Report of the Civil Registration Service can be accessed here.
Annual report of An tArd-Chláraitheoir on the operation of the Civil Registration Acts for 2018
An tArd-Chláraitheoir prepares a report annually on the operation of the Act and provide a copy to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
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Notes for Editors
Civil registration is the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events (live births, deaths, still deaths, marriages and adoption) and other civil is events pertaining to the population provided by law.
It establishes and provides legal documentation of such events. These records are also the source of vital statistics which are used by the Central Statistics Office to publish details insights and projection of population and related vital and life statistics.
The registration process generates documentation that supports an individual’s right to recognition as a person before the law and acknowledges their formal relationship with the State. Individuals are able to have their existence, identity, and vital events legally recognised and obtain proof of legal and civil status through valid certificates.
The documentary evidence and permanent records established through civil registration enable individuals to make claims of legal identity, civil status and family relationships, therefore:
- protecting social, economic, cultural, political and human rights
- facilitating access to essential services such as healthcare, education and social protection
- enabling political participation, property ownership, recourse to justice, formal employment, inheritance and the use of banking and financial services
- offering the basis for identity documents such as a passport or ID
- enables travel and the provision of essential proofs to foreign Government bodies and services overseas
Summary of key activities during 2018
During 2018, over 115,000 life events were registered. Life events are births, deaths, marriages, stillbirths and adoptions.
Number of Registrations Recorded 2015-2018
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| Births | 66,522 | 64,758 | 62,919 | 61,901 |
| Deaths | 30,573 | 31,232 | 31,385 | 32,029 |
| Marriages | 22,112 | 22,620 | 22,018 | 21,052 |
| Adoptions | 88 | 102 | 63 | 81 |
| Stillbirths | 232 | 213 | 208 | 223 |
| Total | 119,527 | 118,925 | 116,593 | 115,286 |
Birth, death and marriage certificates are issued when events are registered.
Certificates are also issued where a member of the public needs a document to access other public, social, legal or financial services.
Certificates and copies of register entries are issued to support historic and family research.
In 2018, 405,000 certificates of current and historic life events were issued by the Service.
Number of Certificates Issued – by Type 2015-2018
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| Births | 256,479 | 259,402 | 246,672 | 247,750 |
| Deaths | 89,661 | 91,843 | 89,365 | 91,289 |
| Marriage | 62,652 | 65,144 | 64,104 | 63,818 |
| Adoptions | 2,087 | 2,033 | 1,969 | 1,723 |
| Stillbirth | 258 | 290 | 336 | 379 |
| Civil Partnership | 500 | 144 | 77 | 75 |
| Total | 411,637 | 418,856 | 402,523 | 405,034 |