First step

If you were (or suspect you may have been) subject to an illegal birth registration, the first step you should take is to apply to Adoption Authority and Tusla to see if either organisation have any birth or early life information relevant to you. If you are not certain of the exact dates/years and names used at the time of your birth, don’t worry. This is quite common. Please apply for to us using whatever information you do have and we will contact you if we need to clarify any details.

How do I amend my birth certificate?

Following this, if would like to have your Birth Certificate amended you need to contact the General Registrar Office (GRO) to do this. You can e-mail the GRO at gro@welfare.ie. If the Adoption Authority or Tusla were able to provide you with any birth or early life information, then this information will be useful to you when talking to the GRO.

What if my birth wasn’t registered?

If your birth was not registered, you can contact Tusla for information and support at birthinfo@tusla.ie.

Inaccurate register entries
If Tulsa is made aware of any inaccuracies to births, deaths, and marriages in the registers, it is obliged to inform the GRO of this under the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022. You are also entitled to contact the GRO yourself should you become aware of any inaccuracies.

Additional Provisions relating to persons the subject of illegal birth registrations
Throughout the legislative process, people affected by illegal birth registrations raised concerns regarding how their current identities impact on matters such as their marriages and children’s identities, issues of succession, and contractual obligations they may have entered into over their lifetime, such as mortgage and financial obligations, life assurance and general commercial or social activity. The Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 makes a number of provisions specifically relating to these challenges in order to alleviate the concerns of persons who were the subject of an illegal or incorrect birth registration.

To read more about these additional provisions, please see here.

I'd like to talk to someone

If you'd like further help, please contact us at the numbers below and we'd be happy to assist.

Adoption Authority of Ireland

Telephone: +353 1 2309 300

Tusla - General Queries

Telephone: +353 818 44 55 00