Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like my colleagues, I would like to join in the expressions of sympathy for the late Austin Currie, to his family and particularly to our colleague, Senator Currie. He was a giant in Irish politics and showed the power of peaceful protest. His legacy will live on.

I wish to join Senator Daly in raising again the issue of the Passport Office and the delays in processing applications, but I want to add the question of the registration of foreign births, which is an issue that I have raised in the House on a number of occasions. As we heard, the marts and nightclubs are open, but if you visit the Department of Foreign Affairs website, you are told that the section that deals with the registration of foreign births is still closed due to Covid. There is currently a backlog of around 31,000 applications. Part of the difficulty is that documents are sent into the Department and they are sitting there. People cannot access a lot of those documents because of the delays. This issue has been raised on several occasions. I ask that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is invited to the House to respond specifically on the issues of the registration of foreign births and the Passport Office, in respect of which, as stated by Senator Daly, we all still have complaints.

The Deputy Leader and I took part in a very useful engagement this morning of the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement with the House of Lords European Affairs Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. It is important that this Chamber looks at engaging with other chambers. One of the key aspects that was found to be useful around that was the message that we all need to keep talking. If we can arrange for more engagement between this Chamber and other chambers around the issue, it should be encouraged.