Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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668. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the way persons (details supplied) can acquire a passport in order to travel for essential reasons with their newly born child given the current situation in relation to registering births and delays in accessing passport and so on; the course of action the couple can take in relation to the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31468/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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All passport applications are subject to the provisions of the Passports Act, 2008 ("The 2008 Act"). The 2008 Act provides, among other things, that a person must be an Irish citizen before a passport can be issued to him or her. In order to meet this requirement, each person must demonstrate an entitlement to Irish citizenship by providing acceptable documentary evidence of this entitlement.

Entitlement to Irish citizenship is determined by the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended, under which Irish citizenship may be obtained by birth, by descent, or by naturalisation.

Accordingly, the Passport Service is obliged to seek documentary evidence of Irish citizenship by birth, parentage/descent, or naturalisation before a passport application can be processed. It is not possible to recognise a person as an Irish citizen in the absence of such evidence.

The onus is on the applicant to provide documentation proving their entitlement to Irish citizenship. Birth Certificates which are issued by the General Register Office (GRO) must be submitted in support of a passport application to prove this entitlement. Neither baptismal certificates nor any other non-civil form of documentation can be considered in support of a first time passport application.

In the event that any applicant has urgent or emergency reasons for requiring a passport, the applicant should contact the Passport Service’s Customer Service Hub, by WebChat, to make the Passport Service aware of the situation.