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.
