Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I will deal first with foreign birth registration, which he and Deputy Clarke have raised in particular. Some 35,000 were processed in 2022, which is an extraordinarily high number, and the processing time was reduced from over two years to ten months. I was talking to officials last month and they believe we can realistically get that down to six months. We will then be into the actual nature of applications, the types of cases that come in and the complexities associated with them. Doing them in six months would be a good outcome. Obviously we could improve upon that but the target initially is to get it down to six months. I am informed that prior to Brexit we were looking at 5,000 per year. It is quite extraordinary. We are now at 35,000 per year. Covid created backlog situations but Brexit created a new dynamic and impact on the passport service with respect to passport applications and foreign birth registrations.