Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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362. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on whether there is an undue delay in processing foreign births; the length of the current processing time; the number of foreign births registered in each of the past 20 years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15929/22]

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.

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.

The number of entries made to the Foreign Births Register each year since 2002 are detailed in the table below.

Foreign Birth Registration Entries 2002-2022 (rounded to the nearest 1000)