John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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1161. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of an application for a copy of a birth certificate for a person (details supplied); and if arrangements will be made for the birth certificate to be issued urgently to enable the person to avail of emergency housing support. [40911/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The application referred to by the Deputy has been placed with the Health Services Executive which operates an online civil certificate issuing service.

I have been informed that the application in question was placed with the HSE on 16th July 2021 and that the HSE indicate that with current levels of demand, the certificate should issue within 30 working days.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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1162. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to ongoing delays in the issuing of birth certificates for children born in 2021; the reason for the delay in issuing birth certificates; the current waiting time for birth certificates to be issued; if families can still access PPS numbers and child benefit payments while waiting for birth certificates; the efforts being undertaken to address the delays; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40921/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The registration of births is undertaken by the HSE civil registration offices. Registration has been impacted by the recent cyber-attack on the HSE and the work to securely restore its ICT systems. Notifications of births must first be received from maternity hospital before a birth can be registered. For births which occurred in Dublin based maternity hospitals, notifications are communicated electronically. Due to the disruption caused by the cyber-attack and the work required to restore systems, delays have occurred in this process with an onward impact on the registration of births. The HSE have informed me that they have made good progress on restoring the systems involved and are dealing with the backlog of birth registrations .

A Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) is allocated by the Department of Social Protection on receipt of a birth registration. Once the birth has been registered and a PPSN allocated, the Department will notify the parents of the PPSN and automatically issue an application for Child Benefit Payment or adjust the level of payment where Child Benefit is already being paid to the family. Any arrears of Child Benefit arising from delays in the birth registration are automatically calculated and paid.

My Department will continue to engage and work with the HSE to enable full restoration of timely services.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.