HSE, Cork councils and State services hit by global Microsoft outage

The HSE has agreed alternative prescription arrangements with medical organisations, while Cork councils report disruption to email and online services

A woman trying to access her Microsoft Hotmail email inbox on a phone. Picture: Yui Mok/Press Association

The HSE, local authorities and other State agencies and commercial semi-State bodies have been left scrambling to restore services following a global Microsoft outage.

A range of Microsoft services have been disrupted since Thursday, including Outlook, Teams and Copilot.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the HSE said it had been affected by global delays.

“People may experience delays in responding to emails. There are also intermittent problems with Microsoft video conferencing facilities.” 

Healthmail, the HSE’s national secure clinical email service, has become unavailable due to the outage.

“Pending resolution the HSE has agreed alternative arrangements with the IMO, ICGP and IPU for prescriptions under the GMS scheme.” 

The Department of Social Protection said payments to welfare recipients would not be affected, but there may be widespread delays in responding to service queries.

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said there had been “no impact on operational policing”, but did not comment on any administrative delays.

Both Cork City and County Council confirmed they had been affected by the disruption to Microsoft services.

“Several city council systems, including email, have been affected,” read a statement from Cork City Council.

“Our ICT team is working to introduce temporary solutions and is awaiting updates from Microsoft.

“In the meantime we apologise for the disruption and for any delays.” 

Cork County Council said members of the public may also have difficulty contacting the council or accessing online services.

“Cork County Council phone lines are still operational. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience while the issue is being resolved.

“We are monitoring the situation and will provide further updates as information becomes available.” 

Other institutions that have reported delays in email service include the Mater Private Network, select third level institutions like Maynooth University, energy supplier FloGas, as well as the Irish embassy in London.

Microsoft products in 74 countries and territories were hit, according to outage tracker Downdetector. The tracker recorded reports from users across the Americas and parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

"As of now, we are not aware of any malicious activity that is causing this incident. We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution," Microsoft said.