Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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309. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when a foreign birth certificate will issue for a person (details supplied) who applied in 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56354/22]

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.

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 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.

With regard to the application to which the Deputy has referred, the applicant was contacted by a member of the FBR team on 11 October 2022, requesting the further submission of supporting documents. Until this outstanding documentation is submitted, the application cannot be progressed further.