The Foreign Births Register was established under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956. An Application for Irish citizenship through Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) can be submitted by any person born abroad with a grandparent born in any part of Ireland or whose parent received Irish citizenship or was deemed to be an Irish citizen prior to the birth of the applicant. Since the introduction of the Foreign Births Register, approximately 150,000 people have been entered into the Register. It is not possible to give exact figures as the system was paper based up until October 2012. It is also not possible to provide a breakdown as requested. Outlined below are details of the number of entries to the Foreign Birth Register since computerisation in October 2012.
October to December 2012: 812 Entries
January to December 2013: 4,920 Entries
January to June 2014: 2,910 Entries.