The Minister for Health told the Dáil he was not in a position to say whether or not he accepted the word of the religious order in relation to the registration of the deaths of women who died when they were in the Magdalene laundry in Drumcondra, Dublin.
Mr Martin told Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, that he simply "recorded that the order said it was compliant.
"I am not in a position to say whether or not I accept that, as the information is not readily available to me."
Ms McManus said it was disturbing that, when a religious order was requested to exhume the bodies of 133 women, 22 additional bodies were discovered and the deaths of only 75 of the women had been properly registered.
She asked if the Minister intended to "progress this issue to give these women in death the respect to which they are entitled but did not receive in life".
The Minister said, however: "The deaths may be registered, but the details upon which the searches were based were insufficient or may have been incorrect".
He said he understood that when applications were made for death certificates relating to people interred in the High Park graveyard, the General Register Office was able to issue 75 death certificates with the information supplied.
"The office issued no-trace forms for a number of others whether it was unable to trace a death entry in the records with the information available to it".
Ms McManus said it was illegal to fail to register the death of a person, and people should be held responsible to ensure that registration was carried out in all cases.
Mr Martin said he would discuss the legal redress he or other officers of the State might have in pursuing the matter, as different Ministers and Departments had responsibilities under the legislation governing this area.
Earlier the Minister told the Fine Gael TD, Mr Dan Neville, that more than 200 acute hospital beds would be freed up for accident and emergency services in the Eastern Regional Health Authority Area.
This would be achieved through the allocation of €5.5 million for the discharge of patients from acute hospitals to a more appropriate setting, including 15 rehabilitation beds in St Joseph's Hospital in Raheny, Dublin.
