Up to 140 probate grants issued by online portal

Practitioners who have paper applications waiting to be assessed in the probate office can withdraw them via the courts portal, High Court Probate Officer Anne Heenan has said.

Speaking at the courts.ie probate update (19 June), Heenan clarified: “It has to be in with us and not assessed. If it's been assessed and queried, we're not letting that be withdrawn, but if it hasn't been assessed yet you can withdraw and go via portal now”.

Heenan added that, since the pilot began in late 2025, 130-140 grants had been issued for applications that had come in via the portal.

Good experience for user

“Both internally and for the external user, yourselves, the experience has been very, very good.

“Queries on the applications are greatly reduced, which means that our processing times here were much quicker on those applications, which is great.

“So, it's beneficial for us, but hugely beneficial to yourselves and to your clients as well,” she said.

Heenan concluded by requesting that practitioners who had not already registered for the online probate service do so as soon as possible and that future probate applications come via the portal.

Mark Dunne, head of digital at the Courts Service, outlined the service roll-out:

• Probate pilot launched Dublin October 2025, nationwide on 2 June this month, and uptake has been good,
• High Court pilot for planning and environment expected end of this month (June 2026),
• Grants of administration expected online in Q3 this year,
• Personal applications – no date yet.

Mark Dunne explained that some restrictions applied to online applications:

• All applicants must be over 18 and capable of making their own decisions,
• Deceased persons must have died after 5 December 2001 and been domiciled in Ireland,
• No grant already issued for estate,
• All applicants must be named executors in will.

Dunne discussed the statement of truth, which replaces both the obligation to file an affidavit and the oath of executor for online applications.

He said it did not need to be sworn or witnessed and that making a false statement of truth carried the same offences as a false affidavit.

Order 40A is the relevant order, available to view on courts.ie.

Documents required to make the application: 

• Completed Revenue application and Notice of Acknowledgement ID,
• Copy of original will, codicils, and maps, if any,
• Email address and mobile number for each applicant – required for digital signing of the statement of truth,
• If an applicant cannot provide these (for instance, very elderly), file offline for now,
• If testamentary capacity is needed, medical practitioner will also need to provide email and mobile number.

Key takeaways

Key takeaways from portal team head Jim Dalton’s detailed walkthrough of the filing process include:

• If information populated from Revenue doesn't match, fix it at SA2 stage, as changing it later may require a client to sign the statement of truth a second time,
• The supporting documents list can grow depending on answers as solicitor application is gone through, so don't assume the initial list is final,
• Testamentary capacity statements are currently triggered if Alzheimer's/dementia/cognitive impairment is listed as cause of death AND the will was signed within five years of death, but this is likely to change soon to also account for diagnosis periods,
• In the trial period there was some confusion over signing of statement of truth: it must be signed by the client and there is now a block in the system to prevent errors,
• It is acceptable for, for example, a legal executive in the firm to sign the charitable bequest form,
• The completed process will generate a cover sheet with which to submit the original documents that are still required. The office will not assess the application until it receives the original will, codicils, and maps, which must not be written on or attached with staples or paper clips,
• If an application is queried upon submission, once the practitioner has addressed all issues the "submit to court service" must be used again, otherwise the application does not go back to the office for reassessment.

Additional information from the Q&A included:

• Practitioners can save and return to an application; completed full stages are saved but dropping out mid-stage will require restarting that stage,
• An order incorporating a map into the will must still be applied for separately in the usual way before using the portal,
• A solicitor/firm acting as executor can use the portal. The statement of truth must be signed by the actual individual executor – it cannot be signed by a representative or on behalf of an organisation,
• If the registered charity number is unknown, entering "unknown" or "N/A" is acceptable,
• Currently grant of probate only. Intestacy is next, with further case types to follow,
• All online applications go to the Probate Office in Dublin, not district registries,
• One login per individual, not per firm. Register using your own name and work email address. Several firms have incorrectly registered using the firm name – the portal has been updated to make this clearer,
• Deeds of renunciation can either be uploaded as a signed scan or completed through the portal with the witness signing electronically.

A recording of the seminar is available on social media and queries can be made to portal@courts.ie.