Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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109. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason that it is taking in excess of two years for foreign birth registration applications to be processed; the proactive steps that his Department is taking to try and speed-up the process; the additional resources that have been applied to this service; if additional resources are applied to this service; the average timeframe be for the processing of a foreign birth registration application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33050/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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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 FBR applications at this time.

Arising from 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 processing of Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) resumed in November 2021. FBR staff have since processed 7,000 FBR applications while also continuing to provide support to passport services due to the unprecedented levels of passport demand.

The FBR Service provides 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.

The Passport Service has been scaling up resources to deal with anticipated demand for passports and FBRs since June of last year. A major recruitment drive, in partnership with the Public Appointments Service, has been underway since 2021. In addition, the Passport Service has run its own recruitment competition for Temporary Clerical Officers (TCOs). The Department has also been working with the HSE to provide opportunities to contact tracing staff to transfer to the Passport Service. As of 20 June, these staff have begun to be assigned to the Customer Service Hub, which will further increase the number of staff answering customer queries. This recruitment effort will bring staffing numbers at the Passport Service to over 900 which represents double the number of staff with the Passport Service in June of last year.

The unprecedented level of staff currently working in the Passport Service will be maintained in the months ahead. This will allow for the reassignment of additional staff to the processing of FBR applications with the aim of significantly reducing turnaround times for these applications by the end of this year.