Sir, - On May 1st the Ministers for Health and Social, Community and Family Affairs, Micheal Martin and Dermot Ahern, launched the Government's consultation document on modernising Ireland's civil registration service, "Bringing Civil Registration into the 21st Century". What both Ministers outlined for the future of Irish registration looks both exciting and challenging.
However, at the press conference there was a distinct lack of reference to any immediate measures to improve the service that members of the public find when visiting the General Register Office in Lombard Street, Dublin 2. The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations has been at the forefront of a campaign to improve public service at the GRO ever since Albert Reynolds announced the decentralisation of that office back in 1992.
What confidence the public can have in this new system only time will tell - though at launch, the powers that be forgot the password for the computer that was being used for the demonstration and there were red faces all round. On a serious note, while Health and Social Welfare run around spending £7 million they should also spare a thought and a few thousand to solve the GRO's immediate problems: the long queues that form daily in Lombard Street; the reduced opening hours; the crumbling index volumes and the lack of any at all after 1995; the chronic staff shortage; and the apparent lack of any will to solve these issues. - Yours, etc.,
Des K. Clarke, Honorary Secretary, Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations, St Brigid's Grove, Killester, Dublin 5.