Written answers
Wednesday, 15 September 2021
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Passport Services
John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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363. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the process in cases in which an Irish passport could be granted to a person through descent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43872/21]
Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department is responsible for citizenship by descent through the Foreign Births Register under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 (“the 1956 Act”), as amended. The 1956 Act provides, inter alia, that an individual born outside of Ireland can claim citizenship by Foreign Birth Registration, through a parent who was not born in Ireland but was an Irish citizen at the time of the individual's birth.
At present, there are just over 30,000 applications in the Foreign Births Registration system that await processing. The number of applications that were received and processed in each of the years 2016 to 2020 and to date in 2021 is set out in tabular form below.
Year | Number of applications made online | Number of applications processed |
---|---|---|
2016 | 14,000 | 8,000 |
2017 | 20,000 | 18,000 |
2018 | 25,000 | 17,000 |
2019 | 32,000 | 18,000 |
2020 | 17,000 | 12,000 |
2021 (year to date) | 9,000 | 4,000 |
Prior to COVID-19 turnaround time for Foreign Birth Registration was 12 to 18 months. This was because of the very high volume of applications due to Brexit and the complex nature of Foreign Birth Registrations. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic the current turnaround time is approximately 24 months.
In order for an application to be processed successfully, comprehensive civil documentation must be provided to demonstrate the link between the applicant and the Irish citizen through whom they claim citizenship. On receipt of this documentation, the application is reviewed and checked for Foreign Birth Registration entitlement. Once entitlement is confirmed, the applicant’s details are entered on the Foreign Births Register, and they are an Irish citizen as of that date.
The Passport Service will resume processing FBR applications as soon as possible. The Department is committed to allocating further resources to this service to assist with the high volume of applications when regular processing resumes with a focus on reducing turnaround times to pre COVID-19 levels by the end of 2021.
In the meantime, in cases of exceptional urgency applicants may continue to contact the Passport Service directly using the email address travelemergency@dfat.ie.
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