Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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70. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when a passport will issue in the case of persons (details supplied) whose applications were submitted via post a number of months ago; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5367/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The processing of Foreign Birth Registration has resumed and will be gradually scaling up in line with the recruitment of additional resources. Due to the complex nature of the Foreign Birth Registration process, the large increase in applications received following the Brexit vote in the UK, and the pause in the Service due to necessary Covid-19 restrictions, applicants should allow approximately 2 years from the receipt of supporting documentation for processing of Foreign Birth Registration applications at this time. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, and the subsequent reassignment of Foreign Birth Registration staff to assist in the provision of essential passport services, the Foreign Birth Registration Service was paused for nearly 15 months across the 2020-2021 period.

The applications referenced were registered on 26 February 2020, and will be processed in the near future. A member of the FBR team will be in contact with the applicants shortly in this regard.

My Department is fully committed to the continued allocation of additional resources over the coming period to assist with the processing of the Foreign Birth Registration applications currently on hand and the high volume of new applications anticipated this year.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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71. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when a passport will be processed for a person (details supplied) in County Donegal; if a passport submitted in July 2021 with the application can be used as supporting evidence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5372/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Passport Service does not currently have the documentation required to process this application to passport issue as these documents were returned to the applicant's parents in error.

The Passport Service has contacted the applicant's parents to apologise for this error and the inconvenience it has caused. They have been advised to resubmit the required documents to the Passport Service. Once these documents are received, the application will be prioritised for immediate passport entitlement checking.