Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1935

Registers of births.

25.—(1) The Minister for External Affairs shall cause to be kept:—

(a) a register to be called and known and in this Act referred to as the Northern Ireland births register, and

(b) a register to be called and known and in this Act referred to as the foreign births register.

(2) The birth in Northern Ireland of a child whose father is, on the day of such birth, a citizen of Saorstát Eireann shall be registrable, in accordance with regulations made under this section, in the Northern Ireland births register.

(3) The birth outside Ireland of a child whose father is, on the day of such birth, a citizen of Saorstát Eireann shall be registrable, in accordance with regulations made under this section, in the foreign births register.

(4) The Minister for External Affairs shall cause to be registered in the foreign births register every birth which is entered in a foreign births entry book and a copy of the entry of which in such book is transmitted to the said Minister in pursuance of this Act.

(5) Every document which purports to be a copy of an entry in either of the registers kept in pursuance of this section and to be duly authenticated in accordance with regulations made in respect of such register under this section shall be admitted in evidence in every court of justice without proof of the seal or signature by which such document purports to be so authenticated or of the authority of the person by whom such seal was affixed or such signature was made and, until the contrary is proved, shall be deemed to be a true copy of such entry and be accepted as good and sufficient proof of the fact and terms of such entry.

(6) The Minister for External Affairs may by order make regulations relating to all or any of the following matters in respect of each of the registers kept in pursuance of this section, that is to say:—

(a) the form of such register and the officer by whom and the place and manner generally in which such register is to be kept;

(b) the persons by whom and the manner in which births may be registered in such register;

(c) the particulars to be entered in such register in respect of every birth registered therein;

(d) the inspection of such register by members of the public;

(e) the furnishing to members of the public of copies of entries in such register and the authentication of such copies;

(f) in the case of the foreign births register, the entry in such register of births copies of the entry of which in the foreign births entry book are transmitted to the Minister for External Affairs under this Act;

(g) with the consent of the Minister for Finance, the fees (if any) to be charged for the registration of births in such register, for the inspection of entries in such register, and for copies of entries therein.