Written answers

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Foreign Birth Registration

Photo of Paul McAuliffePaul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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265. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of a foreign birth registration by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60981/22]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon 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 to 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. These measures, which include increased staffing directed towards the processing of FBR applications, are having a positive impact on the number of applications being processed each month. The number of FBR applications processed per month has doubled in both September and October, with over 1,000 processed in August, over 2,000 processed in September and almost 5,000 processed in October. 

The application to which the Deputy has referred has been initially processed, and is awaiting further documentation in order to progress it further. A member of the FBR team was in contact with the applicant on 27 October 2022 in this regard.

Photo of Paul McAuliffePaul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

266. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of a foreign birth registration by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60982/22]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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 to 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. These measures, which include increased staffing directed towards the processing of FBR applications, are having a positive impact on the number of applications being processed each month. The number of FBR applications processed per month has doubled in both September and October, with over 1,000 processed in August, over 2,000 processed in September and almost 5,000 processed in October.

Supporting documents for the application to which the Deputy has referred were received on 11 August 2022 and are being stored in a secure environment pending entitlement checking.

Photo of Paul McAuliffePaul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

267. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of a foreign birth registration by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60983/22]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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 to 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. These measures, which include increased staffing directed towards the processing of FBR applications, are having a positive impact on the number of applications being processed each month. The number of FBR applications processed per month has doubled in both September and October, with over 1,000 processed in August, over 2,000 processed in September and almost 5,000 processed in October. 

The application to which the Deputy has referred has been initially processed, and is awaiting further documentation in order to progress it further. A member of the FBR team was in contact with the applicant on 30 November 2022 in this regard.

Photo of Paul McAuliffePaul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

268. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of a foreign birth registration by a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60984/22]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

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 to 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. These measures, which include increased staffing directed towards the processing of FBR applications, are having a positive impact on the number of applications being processed each month. The number of FBR applications processed per month has doubled in both September and October, with over 1,000 processed in August, over 2,000 processed in September and almost 5,000 processed in October. 

The first application to which the Deputy has referred has not been registered yet as it is awaiting supporting documents from the Applicant. The second application to which the Deputy has referred was registered on 29 July 2022 and is being stored in a secure environment pending entitlement checking. On completion of this application, all submitted documents will be returned.

The parents are advised to submit the Applicant's long form birth certificate and any other documents they have for the unregistered application in order to advance the application and enter it in the queue for checking. The parents will then be requested to submit any outstanding documents once the application has reached the checking stage. The Passport Service will contact the Applicant's parents regarding this application.

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