Illegal birth registration: Public asked about legislation plans 

Illegal birth registration occurs where the persons named on a child’s birth certificate are the “adoptive parents” and not in fact the child’s birth parents.

A public consultation about proposed changes to assist people affected by illegal birth registration legislation has been launched.

Illegal birth registration occurs where the persons named on a child’s birth certificate are the “adoptive parents” and not in fact the child’s birth parents. In some cases, there may have been two birth certificates issued while in others, there may only be one, incorrect registration.

The Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 introduced a range of measures to address issues arising for people affected by illegal and incorrect birth registration.

These measures included amendments to the Civil Registration Act 2004 to vindicate people’s right to an accurate birth registration and to give legal recognition to their ‘lived’ identities – the name on their illegal birth registration.

However, people whose births were illegally registered have requested further changes to widen access to their birth registration and to revise some of the terminology used in the legislation.

The proposed amendments will allow people whose births were illegally registered to give the public access to their birth registration, or alternatively, nominate one or more people to access their birth registration, for example, future descendants.

This will not affect the rights of people who wish their registration to remain private.

The Department of Children has worked with the General Register Office and the office of the Special Advocate for Survivors to respond to the requests for changes made.

Minister for Children Norma Foley said: “People have shared how the current legislation around illegal or incorrect birth registration impacts their lives and family circumstances.

“The Department has listened carefully, and the targeted amendments now proposed reflect the issues that have been raised.

“I am launching a public consultation on the proposed changes as I want to ensure that all affected people have the opportunity to give their views and to have those views heard.

“I would like to encourage anyone with experience or insight in this area to take part in this consultation so that their views can directly shape the next steps.” 

Under the proposed changes, the birth register containing a person’s original incorrect birth registration, currently known as the ‘register under Part 3B’, would be renamed as the ‘register of lived identity’.

An entry on this ‘register of lived identity’ could be made publicly available or to specific persons if a person actively decides to do so.

Instead of saying a person’s incorrect birth registration is ‘cancelled’, it is proposed that the legislation should say that the incorrect birth registration has been ‘withdrawn’.

This is because many affected persons said the use of the word “cancel” was seen as being equivalent to their lived identity being cancelled.

Many affected persons continue to use their lived identities.

The online public survey is now open for submissions (from 13 March 2026) and will close on 10 April 2026, and is available here.