Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Deputy, but I do not think I have given the two-year figure. It is new to me. Foreign birth registration applications are citizenship applications and, as in all jurisdictions, involve a complex and lengthy process. The passport service has a statutory responsibility to protect the integrity of this special citizenship process. Accordingly, it must assure very careful analysis takes place across its system to verify both the identity of the applicant and his or her entitlement to be an Irish citizen. Experienced staff of the passport service provide systematic, detailed and rigorous checks of all FBR applications.

What has effectively happened here is we redeployed staff to essential services during the pandemic. We continued to deliver an FBR system for urgent cases that needed to have decisions quickly. We are now putting those staff back into assessing the mainstream FBR system and we are effectively doubling the staffing of the Passport Office to get on top of that. That is essentially what is happening now.

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