Grieving mother set to win battle for law change

Date Published: 06-Dec-2012

BY DENISE MCNAMARA

A campaign which began in Galway to allow the death of an Irish citizen abroad to be registered at home may finally be successful after positive signals from the Minister for Social Protection.

An anomaly in the law, which states that that the death of an Irish citizen abroad is recorded and registered in the country where they died – except in the case of Gardaí or members of the defence forces – first came to light after the tragic deaths of two young Galway men.

Athenry teacher Brian Forde (27) died following a fall for a building in New York in July 2009. Just a few weeks later, Keith O’Reilly (22), from Woodhaven, Merlin Park, died after he sustained catastrophic injuries when his head hit hidden rocks when diving from a pier into Lake Michigan.

Keith’s mother Yvonne O’Reilly said the family would not have closure until his death was registered here.

She contacted Cllr Padraig Conneely on the issue after getting no satisfaction from the authorities. He had a motion passed by the Health Service Executive (HSE) Regional Health Forum West to change the law, which was sent to the Departments of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Family and Social Affairs as well as the Registrar General Kieran Feely and the General Registration Office.

The issue was then taken up by students from NUI Galway, where both young men had been students and a major Facebook campaign was launched.

Oireachtas members threw their support behind it, among them Galway West Fine Gael Deputy Sean Kyne, who introduced Civil Registration (Amendment) (Domestic Registration of Death Records) Bill 2012 to the Dáil earlier this month which would amend the current Civil Registration Act 2004 to allow deaths of Irish Citizens who die abroad to have their deaths registered in their home country.

The bill noted that since 2007, 1,002 Irish people have died abroad, the vast majority of them were travelling for leisure or business purposes. None of these deaths have been recorded or registered in Ireland. Mrs O’Reilly said it should be a basic right of every Irish person.

“Everyone deserves that much at least. If somebody goes to do our family tree, they will trace Keith up as far as university, then he goes off the face of the earth,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton confirmed there is currently work on the matter at Department level.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.