Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock

'It's a nightmare': Parents still experiencing delays of up to eight weeks for birth registrations

The delays are blocking parents from accessing State welfare payments.

PARENTS ARE STILL facing delays of up to two months to register their children’s births, blocking them from accessing welfare payments and services such as free GP care for their babies.

As previously reported by The Journal, the HSE has said the cyber-attack in mid-May caused the significant delays and while waiting times have been reduced, there have been repeated calls for additional resources to be deployed to ensure parents get the supports they need. 

A parent can only apply for the monthly €140 child benefit payment when they have a birth certificate for their baby – something they can only apply for after the birth is registered.

The delays are also preventing parents from applying for the free GP card for their babies or claiming back parental leave as they have no official proof from the State that their babies were born.

Ryan Clarke’s first child, Ollie, was born on 14 September. Five days later he logged onto the Civil Registration website to find out how to register the birth.

“It said on the website that it could be done by email up until 30 September because of Covid and the offices being closed,” he said.

“There was an automated email that said it would take a minimum of three weeks so I gave it the three weeks and then rang to check on it.

“The man I spoke to basically said there was no point doing it by email so he gave me a number to ring. That number went to an answering machine every time.”

He said there are only a limited number of appointments per week and, from hearing the experiences of other parents, it seems that they are booked up within minutes at the start of every week.

Clarke said his partner is receiving State maternity benefit and he is working so they can manage financially for now without child benefit.

“I feel for anyone who is struggling, maybe after losing their job because of Covid, or they are on a lower income,” he said. “I can’t imagine how difficult it must be.”

He is concerned that they are unable to apply for Ollie’s free GP care card and he said he was planning to get a letter from their doctor at Ollie’s next check-up confirming the baby’s existence so he could send in his paternity leave forms.

“There’s a lot of stress involved when you have a newborn and then there’s all of this on top of it,” Clarke said. “When we can apply for children’s allowance I’ll probably have to fight to get that backdated as well.

If you’re a single mother or father, you can only imagine… I finished a night shift at 8am this morning and haven’t been to bed. I’m out walking with the baby and the last thing you want to do after a 12 hour night shift is sit waiting on the phone. It’s an absolute nightmare.

He eventually managed to get an appointment in the Dublin office for 28 November. 

“It’s a long time away but it’s the soonest they could get for me,” he said. “I’m at my wits end at this stage with it. We’ve just bought here in Wicklow and there are loads of houses going up all over the place but they don’t have the facilities to support people.”

Karen Kiernan, CEO of One Family, told The Journal that the organisation has continued to receive requests for help in relation to the issue, with one email recently coming from a mother who was told it would be more than a month before the registration would be complete.

“She was quite desperate, she has maternity benefit but she has nothing else so she was trying to figure out whether she has any other entitlements because she can’t live on what she has,” Kiernan said. 

She said the situation is made worse by the lack of staffing of phones at civil registration offices, with parents reporting calling multiple times without being able to speak to anyone or having their call go straight to voicemail.

“If you have a new baby, and maybe you’ve got a phone with phone credit, it’s just a nightmare to try to get through to someone on the phone.

“In the short-term they should be prioritising people who are very vulnerable and financially reliant on State income, particularly people who rely on a housing payment, you could really have someone in danger there.”

She suggested the State should allow organisations like One Family to assist in identifying people who need to be prioritised. 

Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, who has raised the issue a number of times with the Minister for Social Protection, told The Journal she has heard of examples in which parents had to wait up to 13 weeks for the process to be completed. 

“You have to ring them to make an appointment, but no one can get staff on the phone,” she said.

In one response to Whitmore, the minister had said she was assured that walk-in services were available, but they are not available in every county.

“One person in Wicklow had to travel to Navan because it was the closest one,” Whitmore said.

“And the last thing a new mother wants to be doing is driving around the country trying to access this, they should be looking after themselves and their baby. The State should make this simpler for them.”

Whitmore said she understands resources are tight in offices but the government should ensure additional resources are made available until the backlog is worked through. She said the HSE also needs to ensure there are more walk-in services so that particularly vulnerable families can be prioritised. 

The Journal asked each HSE Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) for an update on their waiting times. Some had no backlog at all, but others were still reporting significant delays.

HSE Community Healthcare East which serves Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow currently has an average wait time of up to eight weeks across the region.

The CHO said it lost all access to its operating system as a result of the HSE cyber-attack from mid-May through to the end of July. 

“Staff of this service have been working overtime, and additional staff are in the process of being recruited, to help address the impact on civil registration services resulting from the cyber attack,” a spokesperson said.

They said the average waiting time had been reduced from its peak of 16 weeks in July.

However the eight-week average wait time has not improved in the four weeks since The Journal last checked with this CHO.

A walk-in service is being provided at the Dublin office on Lombard Street East, but for Kildare and Wicklow services are by appointment only unless there is “an emergency requirement”.

They did not give details of how an emergency requirement could be communicated to the office. 

The Mid-West CHO, which covers Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary said the current average wait time is six weeks. 

“As of 1 October emergency (pandemic) legislation no longer applies and the process for registering a Birth has reverted to pre-Covid whereby the parent(s) will require attending a Civil Registration Office to register the birth of their child,” a spokesperson said.

They said some offices in the Mid-West CHO area offer a walk-in service while others are by appointment.

The earliest born child where parents have sought to register the birth and for which information is awaited was born five weeks ago.

Cork Kerry Community Healthcare has a wait time of between two and three weeks for birth registrations, down from up to 12 weeks in the aftermath of the cyber attack.

“During the recent HSE cyber-attack applicants waited between 10-12 weeks as a limited number of applications were submitted electronically and subsequently some were lost during the cyber-attack -  the majority were processed in six to eight weeks,” a spokesperson said. 

The civil registration service offices in Cork (Adelaide Street) and Killarney operate walk-in facilities which are available to the public at specific times.

Community Healthcare West, which covers Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, said there are no significant delays and there is a walk-in centre available in the CHO area. 

The CHO 1 area, serving Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim also confirmed it has no backlog.

Are you impacted by a significant delay in birth registrations? Get in touch with your story by emailing michelle@thejournal.ie.

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
20 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Audrey Byrne
    Favourite Audrey Byrne
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 12:36 AM

    Seriously.. the cyber attack happened in May.. Ireland is a “Knowledge Economy “.. it should have been sorted by now

    196
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Marie Louise
    Favourite Marie Louise
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 9:32 AM

    @Audrey Byrne: just an excuse fo civil servents to do less work

    54
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Dikie Foran
    Favourite Michael Dikie Foran
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 6:05 AM

    What do they mean additional resources just send the people who work there back to the office and do their jobs

    136
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SmallbutMighty
    Favourite SmallbutMighty
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 7:29 AM

    @Michael Dikie Foran: births deaths and marriages worked from the office throughout the pandemic. They weren’t allowed work from home.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute In the paper
    Favourite In the paper
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 7:42 AM

    @SmallbutMighty: Really…do you work there …recently when I tried to access the service I was told only a skeleton staff at the moment…appointments are being given out but could take up to 8 weeks

    62
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute
    Favourite
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 7:49 AM

    @In the paper: skeleton staff doesn’t mean some are working from home. There could be several out sick or at home with kids out sick from school.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Danger
    Favourite Danger
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 9:19 AM

    @SmallbutMighty: no they didn’t

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Guru
    Favourite The Guru
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 5:25 AM

    I know this is a radical idea but maybe, just maybe we could move this process online and eliminate the need for in person appointments and paper forms?

    100
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SmallbutMighty
    Favourite SmallbutMighty
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 7:38 AM

    @The Guru: its registering the birth of someone. Like that’s Perry official. I think it really need to be done in person no. I can see electronic registering of births becoming wide open to fraud.

    45
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SmallbutMighty
    Favourite SmallbutMighty
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 7:40 AM

    @SmallbutMighty: pretty

    6
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Guru
    Favourite The Guru
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 11:27 AM

    @SmallbutMighty: well they seem to manage it many other countries. It could easily be verified via the hospital.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute In the paper
    Favourite In the paper
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 7:36 AM

    Recently I had to use some Government agencies..ring to talk to someone you get a machine…no-one rings back…email..you get ..no-one in the office ..all this due to covid…yet they can go out to ..pubs ..restaurants…nightclubs…HSE..Civil service members never want to work…now they have another friend …Covid

    96
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Dunne
    Favourite Brian Dunne
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 7:25 AM

    We had a baby girl 2 weeks ago and had her registered and birth cert and all within a week.

    72
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Justin Gillespie
    Favourite Justin Gillespie
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 8:06 AM

    @Brian Dunne: Don’t be coming on here with good news like that Brian. You don’t seem to get the point of the comments section at all at all.

    98
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Dunne
    Favourite Brian Dunne
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 8:32 AM

    @Justin Gillespie: lost the run of myself there Justin. Apologies to all involved.

    63
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Disco Inferno
    Favourite Disco Inferno
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 12:24 AM

    State instruments are stretched, not trying to be uncaring, but where you take the resources from to improve this?

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel Muldoon
    Favourite Daniel Muldoon
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 9:29 AM

    All registrations should be delayed until a DNA test is completed to confirm that the man who is signing it knows if he is the actual father of the child. There are too many cases today of men who are raising other men’s children thinking that they are their own.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hans Stofberg
    Favourite Hans Stofberg
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 9:31 AM

    Yes its gaotic but a nightmare no . If registering babies is our biggest problem than I sign the contract straight away.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick Mahood
    Favourite Patrick Mahood
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 5:12 PM

    It took me 11 weeks to get a copy of my birth certificate so I could apply for social housing, trying ringing the phone number advertised to be redirected to an automated service saying that they were unable to take phone calls and to send email, I sent 5 emails in total.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hans Stofberg
    Favourite Hans Stofberg
    Report
    Nov 8th 2021, 9:31 AM

    Yes its gaotic but a nightmare no . If registering babies is our biggest problem than I sign the contract straight away.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds