Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not know the details of the scheme, but the GP did not have to issue the €60 bill immediately. I just want to make that point. The Deputy's overall point is correct, however. There is a huge challenge in respect of the registration of births and deaths and getting certificates. My understanding is there is a major problem in the greater Dublin area especially. One third of all births and deaths occur in Dublin and the surrounding area. Some 1,500 births require registration each month in that area.

We are informed by the HSE, and it is the case, that the Dublin office was impacted severely by the cyberattack. Registrations were not possible for five to six weeks during the summer in what was already an extensive and busy service. It has not recovered sufficiently since to clear the backlog of applications for certificates. Dublin HSE civil registration staff are working to clear the backlogs. We are advised by the HSE that additional staff have been allocated to the registration service and staff are working weekends to deal with the backlogs. HSE management has been requested to give priority to clearing the registration backlogs. It has also been requested to make use of resources in other parts of the registration service to provide support in the coming weeks to ensure delays are minimised. The HSE operates an online certificate ordering service which are all processed by the Dublin registration office.

I fully accept there are huge challenges in this area. We will continue to keep the pressure on in respect of increasing resources to ensure that we can get this backlog dealt with. To be fair to the Department of Social Protection, it will be very flexible and responsive in respect of the issues concerning birth registration, remuneration, etc. Once a child is registered, a PPSN is automatically allocated by the Department of Social Protection. It automatically processes any payments due to parents for child benefits or related payments. For new parents, an application for child benefit is automatically generated and issued to the mother of a child by the Department once a child's birth has been registered. As the Deputy pointed out, that is the critical issue. We do understand the importance of this issue and the prioritisation required in this regard.

During the summer, because of the nature of the cyberattack and given we were dealing with criminal elements that are quite ruthless in how they approach things, I think society in general did not perhaps understand fully the impact of that cyberattack on our systems, especially on the HSE systems. It had a particularly devastating impact on front-line services, including those in hospitals, in acute services and on those services mentioned by the Deputy.

See this speech in context