Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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205. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to IT difficulties being experienced in the Dublin office of the registrar of births; if these IT difficulties have resulted in difficulties for clients in obtaining certificates (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4785/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Registrar General is responsible for the management and control of the Civil Registration Service. This includes the provision and maintenance of the Civil Registration Computer System.

Prior to December 2014 the Managed Services required to support the Civil Registration Computer System was provided by an external service provider at a substantial cost to the taxpayer. In 2014 it was decided to transfer these services into the Department as it had the capacity and expertise necessary to provide these services and such transfer would result in a significant saving to the taxpayer.

This project involved the development and configuration of a new matrix system and the transfer of all data from the external service provider. The services were transferred into the Department in early December 2014.

Following the transfer there were a small number of outages on the system resulting in the system being unavailable for short periods of time. The causes of the outages have been investigated and some have been resolved. Work is on-going to resolve any outstanding issues and the Department is continuing to monitor the system to ensure that any further issues that may arise as a result of this complex development are quickly identified and resolved.

There are manual fall back procedures in place in all Civil Registration Offices which allow the registrar to proceed with registrations in the event that the computer system is not available.

It is unfortunate that a number of people have been inconvenienced by these problems. Any of the persons affected may contact the General Register Office and that Office will be happy to resolve any outstanding issues.