Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of civil registration offices. Many of them, throughout the country, are facing major backlogs. It is nearly impossible for people to register births, deaths, their intention to marry and stillborn babies. This has impacts when it comes to obtaining PPS numbers, passports, child benefit, GP cards, pension amendments and other items across a wide range of areas. People are finding that because there is no online facility or walk-in appointments available in some counties, they are spending hours every week trying to get appointments. This is certainly the case in my constituency of Wicklow. Apparently, the legislation that dealt with online notification lapsed at the end of September and was not reinstated. Will the Taoiseach look into that or put some temporary emergency measures and resources in place in order that HSE offices have the capacity to deal with this?

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