Delay in rules to allow couples more choice in marriage venues

New rules that will allow couples to marry in a venue of their choosing will not come into force until next year at the earliest, it has emerged.

Although the Oireachtas passed legislation providing for radical changes in marriage law last February, the changes cannot be implemented until next January or February at the earliest, according to the General Registrar's Office (GRO).

As a result, the GRO is advising couples not to make plans on the assumption that the new legislation will be implemented "by any given date". Instead, they have been advised to make their arrangements under the current system, which limits marriage venues to the main churches and, for civil ceremonies, a registry office in each county.

A spokesman for the office said the implementation of the new legislation involved "considerable work", including the approval of new venues for civil marriages, the compilation of a register of religious solemnisers of marriage and the training of registrars of births, deaths and marriages in the new procedures.

He also cited the decentralisation of the 60 or so staff in the GRO from Dublin to Roscommon next December, and the computerisation of the entire system of registering births, marriages and deaths.

The spokesman pointed out that this move was planned in the 1990s, before the Government's latest decentralisation plans.

Under the changes provided for in the Civil Registration Act 2004, couples will be allowed tie the knot at a venue of their choosing, subject to certain conditions. The location must be public and the venue must comply with fire and safety rules.

For religious weddings, individual churches will be free to regulate the venues at which marriages could be celebrated. For civil ceremonies, county registrars will be allowed solemnise a marriage in any approved venue.

The Act also relaxed the residency requirements for marriage, and introduced a big increase in penalties for irregularly contracted marriages. People who give false information when marrying could face fines of up to €10,000 and/or imprisonment of five years. Existing fines vary between €10 and €50.

The Inter-Departmental Committee on Marriage Law Reform, which drew up many of the proposals later included in legislation, is working on discussion papers which are likely to produce further reforms in the laws on marriage.