27. Section 61 of the Principal Act is amended by—

(a) the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1):

“(1A) Where the age, civil status or death of a person is required to be proved by or under an enactment prescribed under section 67(1A), a person—

(a) on production by him or her of verification of the requirement for proof, as part of an application in that behalf under subsection (1), and

(b) on payment by him or her of a fee prescribed under section 67(1A),

shall be given a copy certified to be a true copy, a copy, or a certified extract of an entry in a register maintained under section 13.”,

(b) the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (2):

“(2A) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, on application by a person to that Minister in that behalf in electronic form and on payment to that Minister of any prescribed fee shall consent to a search by that person of the electronic record of—

(a) the register maintained under section 13(1)(a), in so far as it relates to births that occurred more than 100 years before the date of the application to search,

(b) the register maintained under section 13(1)(d), in so far as it relates to deaths that occurred more than 50 years before the date of the application to search, or

(c) the register maintained under section 13(1)(e), in so far as it relates to marriages that occurred more than 75 years before the date of the application to search.

(2B) For the purposes of subsection (2A), the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht may keep an electronic record of the registers referred to at paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of subsection (2A).”,

(c) in subsection (4), the insertion of “, (1A)” after “(1) (b) ”, and

(d) the substitution of the following for subsection (6):

“(6) The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, in addition to an tArd-Chláraitheoir, a Superintendent Registrar, a registrar or an authorised officer, may perform functions referred to in subsection (1) (a) in so far as the functions relate to the search of an electronic record of an index to a register maintained under section 13 and for that purpose, that Minister may keep such an electronic record of such an index.”