Courts / Ireland / Report

Asylum seeker resolves action over registration of father's name on child's birth cert

Summary

An asylum seeker who had a child with a security guard at a direct provision centre sought to register the boy's birth certificate with the father's surname. The Registrar General refused, saying the father must attend in person and consent. The mother, represented by Feichin McDonagh SC and Brendan Hennessy Bl, brought a High Court action demanding the Registrar to register the surname under the 2004 Civil Registration Act. She argued the refusal was flawed, irrational, and outside the Registrar's powers, and that the boy had a right to the surname where evidence of the father's identity existed. The court heard the mother's relationship with the father had ended before the birth and that she had a maintenance order against him. The case was resolved when the father's surname was finally registered on the child's birth certificate, and the matter was struck out.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Asylum seeker resolves action over registration of father's name on child's birth cert. Procedural stage: hearing_or_decision

When:

• July 2017 Other
• August 2017 Other
• 2016 and 2017 Other
• 2018-11-08 Publication

Why: One of the reasons she wanted to register her son with the father's name was because she did not want the child to have the surname of her ex-husband and because this would not reflect the boy's true origins. CNI source report

Places mentioned

Topics

Stage Hearing Or Decision

Read the original CNI report