Significant reforms announced to Ireland's Civil Registration System

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has announced a series of significant reforms to the Republic of Ireland's registration system for births and deaths. The main changes to be introduced under the Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Bill 2023 are as follows:

• Families will be able to register births and deaths online for the first time.
• The time frame in which a death must be registered will be reduced from 3-months to 28 days, including those cases where a coroner has not yet concluded their enquiries.
• The criteria for stillbirth registration will be amended, and access extended to the Register of Stillbirths.

It'll be a while before these changes start to impact family history research, but if you're interested to know details of the upcoming changes, see the Department of Social Protection's press release here.