Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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543. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when a decision will be made on the application for a foreign birth registration by a person (details supplied) who applied in February 2020, and to date has had no correspondence on their application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13520/23]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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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. The service was also impacted by necessary Covid-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021 and the unprecedented demand for passports seen in 2022.

During 2022, my Department implemented a number of measures to address the volume of FBR applications on hand, with a view to significantly reducing the processing time for these applications. These measures, which include increased staffing directed towards the processing of FBR applications, have been successful in reducing the waiting time for applicants. FBR applications are now being processed within the normal turnaround times of between 6 and 9 months from receipt of supporting documents, down from over 2 years in September 2022.

Foreign Birth Registration, by its nature, is a detailed and complex process, often involving official documentation relating to three generations and issued by several jurisdictions. Such documents take considerable time to validate.

With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, this application was registered on 14 July 2020. The Passport Service emailed the applicant on 11 October 2022 to request further documents. This email was initially missed by the applicant as it went into their spam folder. The Passport Service contacted the applicant again on 14 March 2023 and resent the email.