I draw the Taoiseach's attention to a serious issue faced by many new parents since the cyberattack on the HSE in May and in the context of the ongoing challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since May, parents of newborn babies have been having extreme difficulties in registering their births. In many circumstances, they have been unable to register a birth at all, and that means those parents are being denied the opportunity even to apply for such services as GP-visit cards, passports, baptism certificates and child benefits. In addition, these parents are unable to include a newborn baby on any housing application, which is vital to those relying on housing assistance payment, HAP, support to pay their rent. This situation also means that a housing application cannot be upgraded to take into account the new accommodation needed for a household.

The Taoiseach will be aware that a family with one child is entitled to apply for a home with two bedrooms, while those with two children can apply for accommodation with three bedrooms. What is happening now, however, is that people on the housing lists are waiting between four and six months to get registered and to get birth certificates. In the meantime, if such families were to accept an offer of a two-bedroom house, that would mean they would end up on a transfer list and be waiting for another six or seven years, if not longer, to get suitable accommodation. This is unacceptable.

I understand and appreciate we are living in unprecedented times. It has been difficult for everybody. These parents of newborn babies, however, are being punished because of this situation. As I said, they are having extreme difficulty in registering their newborn babies and are unable to register them at all in some cases, which means they are being deprived of vital State services. In my home town of Dundalk, there are no walk-in services, and trying to contact those services is nearly impossible. Every time my office tries to contact the services, we are greeted by a message service advising that we should expect delays, that the services are understaffed and have a high workload. I call on the Taoiseach to rectify this situation. Additional staff are needed to sort out this problem, and I appeal to the Taoiseach to get his Government to put new staff in these posts.

A lady came into my office during the week who had a brand new, five-month-old baby. The child had a rash, so she went to the GP. The first thing the doctor asked her was if she had a birth certificate or personal public service number, PPSN, for the baby, and she said she did not. The GP examined the child and then gave that lady a bill for €60. The Taoiseach might think that is not much money to a parent with a baby, but it is. One thing families will do is to sacrifice everything they have for the health of their child. This is only one example of such circumstances. Acquiring a birth certificate must then be followed by an application for a PPSN, so this situation has a snowball effect. With the stroke of a pen, can the Taoiseach ensure GP-visit cards are issued straight away for newborn babies or help to push the system so these families can secure birth certificates? These are important things for families. The Taoiseach is a family man and, as the saying goes, your health is your wealth. Therefore, I plead with the Taoiseach to please sort out this situation.

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.

I asked the Taoiseach for a definite timeline. To be honest, most of the people who come into my office are women with children. They are looking for help. I became a grandfather recently again and it is a fantastic and joyous time. However, these people coming to me are struggling and want help. They need medical attention, a GP-visit card and the children's allowance. These people are looking for help, but they can get nothing done until they get registered. Then, when they have that done, they must look for a PPSN. There always seems to be some kind of obstacle in these people's way. I am asking the Taoiseach, given the way the situation is now, can the HSE or some other body not issue some kind of paperwork that will enable a child to be covered straight away, as soon as it is born, and to have access to a free doctor?

The Taoiseach said that GP should not have charged €60. Is he telling me now, that if I come in to him tomorrow morning and I give him that receipt for €60, he will give me the €60 back so I can give that parent the €60? The detail has to be down in black and white. You have to tell the hospitals or the doctors exactly what is happening. It is not fair on the young girl I mentioned. I think the young girl thought the child had meningitis. When you see for the first time a child with a rash, the first thing that comes into your mind is that it is meningitis. The second thing that happens is the parent goes to the doctor with the child, and the next thing is the doctor asks for €60. Maybe the doctor is entitled to ask for €60, but a simple solution could be achieved with a stroke of a pen. Is there no way that when a child is born in this country, or any country, he or she gets a GP-visit card straight away?

This relates to the registration issue. We are living in extraordinary times. We are in the middle of a global pandemic and we have had a cybersecurity attack on top of that, which has damaged systems. All round, people need to adopt some degree of flexibility and practicality as well. That is the point I made. Many people will know those coming into them in surgeries, etc. A small bit of practicality will allow these issues to be dealt with. The more fundamental point, however, is that adequate resources should be provided to get this backlog cleared. That is the most effective way in respect of ensuring we have a modern, efficient and timely system of birth registration that meets the needs of families and mothers.

I fully get the points the Deputy is making in this regard. I am not sure that creating an alternative system to the existing one would be the best use of resources. We should concentrate on getting rid of the backlog and getting up to date in issuing these certificates. I congratulate the Deputy on becoming a grandfather again.

For the third time.

There is great hope for Louth in the future, in all sports, I have no doubt, if there are more Fitzpatricks coming on the scene.