Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. The issue I wish to raise today relates to the foreign birth registry. This is in respect of children who are de facto Irish by dint of their parentage but who are born outside the island of Ireland. Specifically, I refer to grandchildren of Irish-born grandparents or the children of parents who were Irish at the time of their birth. It does not apply to children whose parents were born on the island of Ireland, because they automatically can apply for a passport. If, for example, your parent is Irish but was not born in Ireland, maybe because they were living abroad at the time or because they were naturalised, you have to go through the rigmarole of being put onto the foreign birth registry before you can apply for your passport, to which you are entitled. In the first instance, there is no doubt about the entitlement of these children to citizenship. Their parents or parent, or grandparents or grandparent, are Irish. That gives them an automatic right to citizenship. This is a processing issue. There are children all over the world and in this country who happen not to have been born on the island of Ireland who now have to go through this administrative rigmarole to get on the foreign births register in order that they can apply to have their Irish passports and enjoy the benefits they bring. In the interim, however, they do not enjoy those benefits and have to work on the passport of whichever nationality they assume, through either where they were born or whatever other means.

That is all fine, or at least it would be if it did not take so long to get onto the foreign births register. I understand the importance of the integrity of this system and that, when the Department of Foreign Affairs is establishing the veracity of somebody's parentage, birth or whatever it might be, that must be followed. That is fine, but it is taking more than two years in many instances. I was contacted by somebody in the past week whose son was born in Spain. He is Irish but he was not born on the island of Ireland. He applied for registration on the foreign births register in July 2023. He was in touch with the Department in the past week or two and was told it would be another six months before he gets an answer. That is a preposterously and unnecessarily long time, and this relates to EU country. It is not a country outside the EU where citizens need to be verified or where, perhaps, we do not have an embassy on the ground, which I could understand might slow matters down. It is a western European, developed nation whose systems we can rely on whereby, when it presents a birth certificate that lists the parentage and the fact of the child's birth, that is readily verifiable. I cannot understand why, therefore, it takes so long for children in such a position to be given the rights they naturally have under our law. It is very frustrating for them.

In recent years, especially since Covid, for example, we had problems with the processing of passports. The Department has done a really good job of dealing with that backlog and getting on top of the delivery of passports. The system is now excellent. The Passport Office now operates such that a person can get a passport within days of having applied for it. My daughter was born last year and we received her passport within a month of her birth. That is an extraordinary turnaround from where we were. It may be that resources have been diverted away from the foreign births register process, but can we now please deal with this issue? It is not fair for children or their parents that they would have to hang around for up to two years to have the certainty of a passport for their child in order that they can travel with ease. As long as they do not have that passport, they do not have the benefits of it, such as visa-free travel or access to other countries, including Ireland.

Will the Minister of State commit to speeding up the process for registration on the foreign births register, making life easier for parents and children alike and dealing with what is ultimately their right in an efficient and timely manner?