Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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194. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when foreign birth registration applications will be processed for siblings (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46652/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department is responsible for processing Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) applications for people who are born abroad and claim Irish Citizenship through a grandparent born in Ireland or through a parent who has claimed citizenship also through FBR, Naturalisation or Post Nuptial Citizenship.

Demand for this service increased significantly as a result of the Brexit vote in the UK. In 2015, prior to Brexit, a total of 6,000 entries were made to the register. In 2019, a peak number of 19,000 entries were made to the Foreign Births Register. Demand for this service from applicants in England, Scotland and Wales continues to be strong with over 8,000 applications received to date this year.

The service was also impacted by necessary Covid-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021 and the unprecedented demand for passports seen to date in 2022.

My Department is currently putting in place a number of measures that will address the volume of FBR applications currently on hand with a view to significantly reducing the processing time for these citizenship applications by the end of this year.

Supporting documentation for the applications to which the Deputy has referred was received on 19 March 2020, and is due to be processed shortly. A member of the FBR team will be in further contact with the applicants in this regard.