Mr. Niall Burgess:

The only ones that are being processed at the moment are applications where the acquisition of citizenship for a child is at stake. For example, if an applicant tells us that he or she is expecting a child and that acquiring citizenship through FBR is essential to passing Irish citizenship on to his or her child, then we will pick that application out and work with him or her to make sure there is no loss. The numbers of FBR applications have been increasing as a result of Brexit but for the greater part, these applicants have another citizenship and are carrying the passport of another country. Therefore, for the time being that is where we have prioritised resources for passport applications from Irish citizens and the processing of FBRs. We hope to address this backlog in the autumn.