Anyone needing their birth certificate to get a passport or qualify for social welfare payments will in future be spared the task of going around to different agencies.
Under new proposals announced yesterday, electronic certificates will be shared with Government Departments and agencies, reducing the need for paper certificates. People will be able to get a certificate at any registrar's office for the first time.
The first phase of the £7.3 million modernisation of the service, unchanged for 150 years, is to start next year with the computerisation of records. The emphasis in the second phase will be on developing access and services via the Internet.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, yesterday said a project in Roscommon was storing all registrations since 1845, about 20 million records, in electronic format. "When the records are computerised it will be possible to get a certificate at any registrar's office around the country for any event registered in the State," he said.