Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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417. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of foreign birth registrations from 2012 to date in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18136/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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Foreign Birth registration is a process detailed in Irish legislation whereby a person born outside the island of Ireland, who has a parent who is an Irish citizen but who was also born outside the island, can be registered on the Foreign Births Register in order for him/her to obtain Irish citizenship. Once a person is entered onto the Foreign Births Register by my Department they are an Irish citizen and therefore entitled to apply for an Irish passport.

The table details the number of Foreign Births Registration Certificates issued by my Department since 8 October, 2012 when the Náisiún processing system was introduced. There are difficulties in providing comprehensive and accurate statistics prior to that date.

At the beginning of this year, my Department allocated extra temporary resources to deal with the significant increase in the volume of applications that have been received since the middle of 2016. This deployment resulted in a significant increase in Foreign Births Registration Certificates issued in the first quarter of 2017. We continue to process a large volume of applications, with a particularly high continuing volume of applications being received by our Embassy in London.