Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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127. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide an update on an application to the foreign births register (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31290/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The processing of Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) will be gradually scaling up in line with the recruitment of additional resources. Due to the complex nature of the FBR 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 over 2 years from the receipt of supporting documentation for processing of FBR applications at this time. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, and the subsequent reassignment of FBR 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 application referenced was registered on 18 May 2020 and is due to be processed in the near future.

FBR staff continue to provide an emergency service for Foreign Birth Registration in cases of exceptional urgency, such as expectant parents, or stateless persons. Such applicants may continue to contact the Passport Service directly. For other applications, the FBR service operates a transparent general policy of processing applications in order of receipt.

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.