Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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414. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the position regarding and status of an application for Irish citizenship by a person (details supplied). [46386/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The application to which the Deputy refers was received on 11 January 2021, and is currently waiting to be processed. All documentation submitted is being stored in a secure environment.

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. We take our legal responsibility in relation to Foreign Birth Registration very seriously and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the processing time for these applications stood at 18 months. This is due to the complex nature of Foreign Birth Registration applications and the very high volume of applications we received due to Brexit.

The Passport Service is very concerned about this backlog situation and are actively planning to resume processing FBR applications as soon as possible. My 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 cases of exceptional urgency applicants may continue to contact the Passport Service directly using email address: travelemergency@dfa.ie.