The Health Service Executive, which manages Certificates.ie, the online ordering site for official birth, marriage and death certificates, has suspended its service. (For clarity, the online site provides only the €20 ‘full’ certificates, not the €5 ‘research’ photo copies more typically used by family historians.)
The Eastern Registration Area of the Civil Registration Service lost all access to all its operating systems as a result of a cyber attack from mid-May to the end of July. Since then, staff 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.
Under normal circumstances, certificates.ie was able to issue a certificate in ten days from the order being placed online. Since the summer, the backlog has grown, delaying official despatch times from the original 10 days, to 30 days, then 60 days and finally, in the first week of December, 100 days.
On 21 December the decision seems to have been taken to suspend the ordering service. No date for its reinstatement has yet been given, and no information has been provided to customers still awaiting delivery of their ordered certificate(s). (I know this for certain because I'm one of the countless thousands with an order stuck in the backlog. I placed my order and paid for the certificate on 23 October, 68 days ago.)
Walk-in and phone-and-collect services are still available for those able to make a personal visit to a registration office that provides such services. Click the image above to find out more.