FAMILY OF GALWAY MAN CALL FOR RAPID IMPLEMENTATION OF CIVIL REGISTRATION ACT

Date Published: 07-Nov-2012

The Galway mother of a young man who died in an accident in Chicago in 2009 is calling for new legislation on the civil registration act to be passed without delay.

Yvonne O' Reilly, from Merlin Park in the City, is unable to register her son Keith's death in this country because of an anomaly in Irish law.

In 2010, the family met with the Joint Committee on social and family affairs which supported their calls to amend legislation.

Yesterday, Galway West TD Sean Kyne introduced a bill in the Dáil to amend the civil registration act.

If passed, the deaths of Irish people abroad will be registered in Ireland.

There is also a retrospective element of the bill which would enable families of citizens who died overseas in the last ten years to register those deaths within one year of this bill's enactment.

Yvonne O' Reilly says the amendments to the civil registration act needs to be implemented as a matter of urgency.