Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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235. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to set out the number of persons registered with his Department's citizens' registration service as being resident abroad. [50296/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Citizens’ Registration facility is administered by the Consular Directorate of my Department in concert with our network of Embassies and Consulates around the world. No registration facility is available within the Common Travel Area (Ireland/Great Britain). There are currently a total of 29,176 citizens registered on the system and this number is made up of a combination of holidaymakers, business travellers and longer-term migrants. The system is primarily intended to capture the contact details of Irish citizens in a country or region at a given time so that my Department can contact them in the event of a crisis. Levels of registration tend to be low in Europe and North America and proportionately higher amongst those travelling or living in other parts of the world.

Registration is completely voluntary and a matter for the individual concerned. The system does not enable us to distinguish between long-term residents and temporary visitors and my Department would have no basis on which to verify the residence status of individuals.