Gary Gannon
Question:369. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the status of the case of person (details supplied) who applied to become an Irish citizen through foreign birth registration. [44186/21]
View answerWednesday, 15 September 2021
Questions (369)
Written answers
The application to which the Deputy refers was received on 16 September 2020, and is currently waiting to be processed. All documentation submitted is being stored in a secure environment.
My Department is responsible for citizenship by descent through the Foreign Births Register under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 (“the 1956 Act”), as amended. We take our legal responsibility in relation to Foreign Birth Registration very seriously and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the processing time for these applications stood at 18 months. This is due to the complex nature of Foreign Birth Registration applications and the very high volume of applications we received due to Brexit.
The Passport Service is very concerned about this backlog situation and are actively planning to resume processing FBR applications as soon as possible. We will be making a public announcement on specific dates in the coming weeks.