A birth may be registered in any civil registration office regardless of where the birth took place. The staff in the hospital where your child was born will be able to advise you of the location of your local civil registration office. Details are also available on line at www.hse.ie

Parents are required by law to register the birth of their child no more than 3 months from the date of the birth. Birth certificates are needed for many purposes for e.g. to enroll your child in school, or when applying for a passport etc.

The hospital notifies the registration service of all births that take place. This process can take up to two weeks, so it’s advisable that you ring the registration office before attending to ensure your details are on our system. It should be noted this is the birth notification process and does not mean the birth is registered.

The registration of the birth is carried out based on information provided by a ‘qualified informant’. Parents are the primary ‘qualified informants’ and must attend personally to complete the registration of a birth and sign the register of births. In the case of married couples one or both need only attend. Where one parent attends then only one signature will appear on the birth certificate.

Parents will need to bring

• Photo identification (current passport or driving license)
• Parent’s Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSN)
• If parents were married abroad, bring original marriage certificate and a certified translation into English or Irish if required.

Where the parent/s cannot attend to register the birth due to ill health, the following persons may act as ‘qualified informants’ to register the birth:

• A designated member of the hospital staff where the birth took place
• Any person present at the birth
• Any person present in the dwelling where the birth occur
• Any person who has charge of the child
• Any person appointed guardian of the child
• A person found to be the parent of the child by order of the courts