Almost 40,000 waiting on booster certs due to 'administrative errors'

Brian and Gemma Foody, with daughter Molly. Gemma has still not received an updated cert, meaning the family cannot return to Australia.

Almost 40,000 people are still waiting to receive their booster certs due to administrative errors, according to the Department of Health.

While the majority of booster certs have now been issued to the 2.7m people who received their jabs, some 40,000 are trying to resolve the issue through an overburdened helpline.

As of February 8, the department said they had provided booster certs to everyone for whom the HSE provided data.

Out of 2.6m certs issued by email and post, less than 40,000 records are still affected by “admin errors or where incorrect email addresses were provided”, according to a Department of Health spokesperson.

Of the 2.7m people who have received their booster or additional vaccine dose in Ireland, 2.1m have been issued with an updated digital cert by email, while almost 570,000 have now been issued with a cert by post.

The department has said that certs still not issued are due to issues such as a person having received either a primary or booster dose abroad, or data not being sufficiently submitted by vaccinating GPs or pharmacists.

“In some of these instances, where a person who is eligible requests their new certificate from the service centre, they are automatically reissued the certificate of their primary vaccine course,” they said.

Frustration resolving outstanding issues

For the almost 40,000 left waiting for updated certs, many report frustration trying to contact the HSE to help resolve outstanding issues.

Brian Foody and his wife Gemma live and work in Western Australia, but have been home in Ireland since July due to a family bereavement. 

They both got their boosters in January so that they could travel home to Australia when borders opened. 

However, they are now at a standstill, as Gemma has still not received her updated booster cert.

“We both got our boosters here, and I got my cert in the mail no problem, but Gemma's didn't come through,” Mr Foody said.

“We eventually found out they had spelt her name and email wrong, so they corrected that in the HSE system, but they have no way to reissue the cert because that's done by the Government.” 

There's no one we can get through to actually talk about it. We've tried the helpline every day for an hour. 

"The phone line is like five minutes of telling you all this crap, and then they tell you sorry, there's no one no one available to talk to you, and they hang up. 

"But they waste five minutes of your time before they even tell you that,” he added.

The Department of Health said many calls to the helpline are creating demand, and long queues relate to people who have received primary or booster doses in different countries.

“Resolving these calls is a labour-intensive process as evidence of all vaccinations is required. An online option to process these requests is being developed and will launch in the coming weeks,” they said.

Others who are seeking to travel using a recovery certificate after recently contracting Covid-19 are also running into difficulty, as a positive PCR test is needed to issue a recovery cert.

However, those aged between four to 39 years of age with symptoms of Covid-19 are currently being told to use an antigen test rather than a PCR.

The Department spokesperson said that certificates of recovery are only being issued for positive PCR tests because of EU regulations, which do “not currently allow for the issuing of recovery certificates following a rapid antigen test”.