Ireland lagging on digital health records

Ireland is still building the basic digital plumbing that many European health systems already take for granted. Euractiv reported on May 18 that only five of Ireland’s 47 public hospitals have functioning electronic health records, citing Irish parliamentary research and official assessments that describe the country as both a “beginner” and a “clear outlier.” (euractiv.com) The gap is not just about hospital software. The European Commission’s Digital Decade work shows Ireland remains far behind the EU on citizen access to electronic health records, even as Brussels pushes member states toward universal access by 2030. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) (about.hse.ie) ### How far behind is Ireland, exactly? Ireland had just five of 47 public hospitals running their own electronic health records, according to an Oireachtas library and research paper published in March 2025 and cited by Euractiv. That same paper said Ireland had been classified as a “beginner” by the European Commission and a “clear outlier” by Ireland’s Department of Health. (euractiv.com) The European Commission’s 2024 Digital Decade country report for Ireland put the country’s score for access to e-health records at 11.4 out of 100, compared with an EU average of 79.1. The report said Ireland had shown “no substantial progression” from the previous year. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) ### What is the EU measuring when it talks about digital health records? The Commission’s eHealth indicator study tracks whether people can securely access their electronic health records and whether providers are connected to supply that data. The 2025 study said all member states now have some kind of access service, but only four countries — Ireland, Italy, Spain and Sweden — were still relying on regional rather than national services. (data.oireachtas.ie) The EU target is explicit. The 2024 eHealth study said the bloc is working toward 100% of EU citizens having access to electronic health records by 2030, while the European Health Data Space regulation is meant to support more secure and usable health-data access across the union. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) ### What is Ireland doing now to catch up? Ireland’s Department of Health published its “Digital for Care” framework in 2024, setting out a roadmap that includes a patient app, a shared care record and a longer-term national electronic health record. The government said at the time that the plan was designed to digitally transform health services between 2024 and 2030. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Ireland’s health minister, announced on February 5, 2026 that the government had approved the start of procurement for a national electronic health record. The Department of Health called it a milestone in modernising the health service. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) The HSE said on March 13, 2026 that it had issued a tender for the system, branded “One Health Record,” which it said would become the primary record platform used by clinicians across public health and social care settings. The HSE has said the system will be centrally procured and regionally deployed. (gov.ie) ### Why does the lag matter for patients right now? Ireland’s own digital-health materials describe a system still being assembled in pieces. The HSE says its current roadmap includes the HSE Health App, a National Shared Care Record, Community Connect for community-based services and the future electronic health record platform. (gov.ie) That means continuity can still depend on where a patient was seen and which system a provider uses. The parliamentary research paper said the government’s framework commits Ireland to meeting the EU’s 2030 eHealth target, but the existing hospital footprint shows that much of the work is still ahead. (about.hse.ie) ### What happens next? Ireland’s next concrete step is procurement and rollout. The HSE launched the tender process in March 2026, and the Department of Health has framed the national EHR as a multi-year programme under the 2024-2030 digital-health framework. (about.hse.ie) The EU’s benchmark remains 2030. By then, member states are supposed to provide broad citizen access to electronic health records, and Ireland’s performance will be measured against the same Digital Decade indicators that now place it near the bottom of the bloc. (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu) (about.hse.ie) (data.oireachtas.ie)