Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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99. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if there are any plans in place to speed-up the processing time of the foreign birth register at present (details supplied). [53812/22]

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.

The current waiting time for FBR applications is approximately 2 years from receipt of supporting documentation. My Department has put 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.

The Passport Service has been scaling up resources to deal with anticipated demand for passports and FBRs since June of last year. Staffing numbers in the Passport Service have doubled since June 2021. My Department ran several competitions in 2021/22 to address staffing needs in the Passport Service. New office space on the Balbriggan campus is now open and provides over 200 additional workstations to accommodate the increase in staff numbers.

The unprecedented level of staff currently working in the Passport Service will be maintained in the months ahead, allowing for the reassignment of additional staff to the processing of FBR applications.