I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, to the House. I call Senator Tim Lombard, who has four minutes.

The Minister of State is more than welcome. I raise this matter to ask the Minister for Education to provide an update regarding the timetables for building works at St. Brogan's College, Bandon, County Cork. This is part of a multiphase operation. There are three phases. The first phase has been completed. We are looking for progress regarding the second phase.

St. Brogan's is a co-education, multidenominational school based in Bandon, which offers a wide range of subject choice for both boys and girls of all ages and abilities. Bandon is the largest town in Cork South-West. We are lucky to have four excellent post-primary schools in Bandon. They cater for a huge catchment area, including villages like Ballinhassig, Innishannon, Kilbrittain, Timoleague, Ballineen, Enniskeane, Newcestown and Ballinadee. It also includes a catchment area of 19 primary schools that all go to the school. It is quite a significant driver in our educational economy and we need to make sure we have the right infrastructure on site.

The school's mission statement is very important. It states: “St. Brogan’s College strives to be a happy, safe, caring and inclusive community where everyone is supported to reach their potential”. That mission statement sets out the ethos of the school and that is led by the very capable principal, Helen Cadogan, and her two wonderful assistants, Derry O'Donovan and Teresa Vaughan. That team has worked tirelessly to try to make sure that this very significant project can be delivered.

Last year, we saw the completion of the first phase, which was a third storey stand-alone extension that catered for accommodation for science laboratories, home economics rooms, art rooms and additional classrooms. This was very much welcomed.

The next phase is really important as it is about trying to tie together the entire project and achieving the school's ethos, which is to ensure all sections of society can be provided for in the actual school itself.

The next phase involves four special education classrooms and more additional classrooms. This special education space is really important. At the moment, the school is catering for four autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes but only has two ASD rooms. It has been out front since the 1990s about providing special education on campus and that inclusive nature is so important. We need the infrastructure and the Department to liaise with the school management to make sure phase 2 can move forward. Literally since last January-February, we have been trying to get movement on this second phase. There has been very little information coming from the Department about when this going to happen. It is really important that we get movement on a timeline and when this second phase can start because the inclusive nature on the school grounds is important and what they have delivered is really important so far.

St. Brogan's College is really significant. In 2021, the college had 620 pupils and now it has more than 860 pupils. That shows how the development of the school is going one way but the school's ethos is what it is all about. I recommend that the Minister of State visits the school. If he does, he will meet Ultan the therapy dog who is a wonderful animal. Ultan will be one year old next Friday and there will be a big party in the school. It shows how inclusive the school is. On arrival, you meet the therapy dog. Ultan interacts with everyone. He is a wonderful animal but he provides wonderful engagement for people who just need that little bit of space at times.

Finally, this school has done so much but what it needs now is infrastructure. St. Brogan's needs the special classes so it can provide what is needed on the ground. It needs the canteen and the additional classrooms. The second phase of building and its timeline are very important.

I thank the Senator and the Minister of State has four minutes.

I thank Senator Lombard for raising this matter. It gives me the opportunity to update the House on the current position regarding the additional school accommodation scheme project for St. Brogan's College, Bandon, County Cork.

As the Senator will be aware, the project referred to is a building project to deliver additional accommodations at St. Brogan's College, Bandon, County Cork. The project is a large ASA project delivered in two phases. Responsibility for delivering the project has been devolved to Cork Educational and Training Board, which has appointed a design team to design the accommodation being provided and to bring the project through the tender and construction phases. Projects progress from stage to stage in accordance with the project brief and the Department's design guidelines.

Under phase 1, four general classrooms, three science laboratories, two preparation areas, an art room, a textile room, a home economics room and a pastoral office were completed last year. The Department of Education has also approved a phase 2 of this project to enter its pipeline of school buildings. Phase 2 will provide seven general classrooms, a mild general learning disability classroom, three special education classrooms, seven special education tuition rooms and ancillary accommodation, including a staffroom, a general purpose and-or dining room, a counter area, servery, a general purpose, GP, storeroom, locker areas and toilets.

The stage 1 architectural report for phase 2 is currently being reviewed by the Department from both a technical and cost perspective. This is similar to all other capital projects and is in accordance with the requirements of the public infrastructure guidelines. Once this review is completed, the outcome will be shared with the school authority. At this early juncture in the project, it is not feasible to give a reliable timeline for the practical completion of the project.

Since 2020, the Department of Education has invested over €5 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 950 school building projects and with construction currently under way at approximately 350 other projects, which includes 37 new school buildings. These 350 projects, currently at construction, involve a total State investment of over €1.5 billion. This is a record level of investment in school buildings. It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education, and will upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure. The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.

I thank the Minister of State for a very comprehensive response. He mentioned what was involved in the second phase, and that is really important. It includes three special education classrooms and seven special education tuition rooms. We need the final piece of the jigsaw. We need to make sure that this development can move forward. We have been waiting since January or February to get news from the Department about the proposal and on whether it be moved on. There is a need at some level to make sure this proposal moves on. We are really trying to make sure the inclusive nature of the school can continue by putting the infrastructure in place. We have the plans, we have gone to the Department and we now need to get approval, if we possibly can.

The Department has told me that it will move on this as fast as it can. This Department of Education really has a good track record on the delivery of capital projects. I think the reason for that is because it has done so many. It has completed 950 projects in the last four years and when you do something many times you begin to get good at it. I noticed that with, for example, Transport Infrastructure Ireland. The TII has built so many motorway bridges and roads that at this stage you can kind of expect that they are going to be able to do things on time and on budget.

I expect that the Department of Education is going to be able to deliver for this school in just the same way it delivered phase 1 last year.

The school is growing. The Senator gave a very good description of what is happening there, everything right down to the therapy dog. I got some colour there in what the school is like with its 860 pupils and its inclusive ethos. It is providing already for special education but needs to provide more. I think everybody would be glad to see that there are 1,600 extra SNAs and more than 700 extra special education teachers provided for in the budget. Everything we can do to help St. Brogan's College will be done as soon as possible.

I thank the Minister of State. My Commencement matter is in respect of a school building project at Ardscoil Phádraig in Granard, County Longford. It is a coeducational ETB school based in Granard just ten minutes away from where I live. There are 370 pupils on the enrolment across the six years, which has grown since 2017-18, when there were 253. It is at a maximum and has a waiting list for kids looking to attend. It has DEIS status and, similar to St. Brogan's College, it was actually the first post-primary school in Longford to have an ASD class. That was back in 2009. In 2018, a full, modern, purpose-built class catering for 18 students was built. It is a model of special education, not just for Longford but for the entire country.

The school was sanctioned for a nine-classroom extension in February 2021, three and a half years ago. Temporary prefabs are in place currently. As I stated, the school is at a maximum. It is on a very confined site and has a limited amount of outdoor space for the kids. My own son started in first year a few weeks ago. I am delighted that he is getting on well. I have been on the board of the school since 2009, when I was first elected to local politics, so I know the way the school works and how they look after their students. Every student in that school gets every opportunity possible that they wish, be it sporting or academic. The school provides a rich and diverse curriculum that caters for the needs of each student and offers a vast range of educational experiences that will challenge each student. It is committed to the development of the students and there is a strong emphasis on the personal and social development of those youngsters, catered to by an extensive range of extracurricular activities such as art, culture and sports. All students are actively encouraged to participate.

The school recently received funding under path 4, a significant multimillion euro investment into upgrading and retrofitting the entire old part of the school. The fact is there is still a shortage of classroom facilities for the students at present. We want to know when we are going to get our science room and extra classrooms that are much-needed so that we as a school can cater for the larger number of kids who want to attend.

I thank the Senator. The Minister, Deputy Norma Foley has asked me to answer this on her behalf. I will give an update on the timelines for the delivery of additional classrooms at Ardscoil Phádraig, Granard.

Ardscoil Phádraig, Granard is a coeducational secondary school and enrolment for the school in September 2023 was 345 pupils. I am pleased to advise the House that Ardscoil Phádraig was approved to enter the Department’s pipeline of school buildings under the additional school accommodation scheme. The project involves the provision of five mainstream classrooms along with one music, one multimedia and one textiles room combined with a science laboratory and science preparation area and a user-assisted toilet. The project has been devolved for delivery to the Longford Westmeath Education and Training Board, which has submitted the stage 1 architectural report, early design, to the Department for approval. This report is currently being reviewed from both a technical and cost perspective in accordance with the requirements of the public infrastructure guidelines. Once this review is complete, my Department will be in touch with the school authority on how best to progress this important project through to detailed design, planning, procurement and construction. At this early stage and particularly in advance of the necessary statutory approvals, it is not possible to provide a reliable date for when this school building project will be completed.

Since 2020, my Department has invested over €5 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 950 school building projects and with construction currently under way on approximately 350 other projects, which includes 37 new school buildings. These 350 projects currently at construction involve a total State investment of over €1.5 billion. This is a record level of investment in school buildings. It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education and upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure. The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.

Notwithstanding this level of unprecedented investment, it is also important to note that all individual projects form part of a larger programme. The Department must manage the wider programme within the context of available resources, including funding parameters. In doing so, the Department targets and prioritises areas that are under greatest pressure for additional school places. This reflects the Department's fundamental objective of ensuring the availability of a school place for every child.

I thank the Minister of State. Similar to the previous answer, this was sanctioned in February 2021. Three and a half years later, we get an answer that "at this early stage and particularly in advance of the necessary statutory approvals, it is not possible to provide a reliable date for when this school building project will be completed". I do not think it is acceptable three and half years later to be told it is at an early stage. Do we need to further resource the school building unit in the Department of Education? I think we do. Every Member here has schools that are sitting in the system. After three and a half years, it is at an early stage. What is the projected final stage of this? Why is it not progressing further in the system? It is not acceptable. We needed extra school classrooms in February 2021. An application went in and was sanctioned because there was a need there. Two lots of children will have gone through the five or six years of the school system before this is built. If it was needed in February 2021 it should be delivered by now, three and a half years later. It is not at an early stage. It is not acceptable. I ask the Minister of State to pass that on to the Department of Education. We need to look at the resourcing of the school building unit. Why is it taking so long for school building projects to come through the system? Is it a case that they are waiting and hoping that some will not need extra classrooms when it comes to it? We need to further resource that unit and give definitive timelines to the students. My son started last week. In six years he will probably not see that extra classroom. It is not acceptable for any child.

Senator Carrigy clearly has a close, direct understanding of this particular school as he is on the school board and one of his children is attending the school. He understands what is involved. He is telling me that the school applied three years ago for its expansion, and that it is waiting for the Department to approve the stage 1 architectural plans. He cannot see why the project is taking longer than other schools to complete. What the Department says is that its prioritisation is directly related to how much pressure that school is under for additional school places. This is to obtain the objective of ensuring the availability of a school place for every child. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Foley what she can do to advance this project and why it is taking so long to be at such an early stage.

I take representations from parents in schools and understand that sometimes you really work for a school project to happen, and by the time it has gone through the system and has been constructed, your child has actually progressed through the school and is never going to get the benefit from it. It is incredibly frustrating. I will go back to the Minister and ask what she can do on this particular project.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. The issue I wish to raise today relates to the foreign birth registry. This is in respect of children who are de facto Irish by dint of their parentage but who are born outside the island of Ireland. Specifically, I refer to grandchildren of Irish-born grandparents or the children of parents who were Irish at the time of their birth. It does not apply to children whose parents were born on the island of Ireland, because they automatically can apply for a passport. If, for example, your parent is Irish but was not born in Ireland, maybe because they were living abroad at the time or because they were naturalised, you have to go through the rigmarole of being put onto the foreign birth registry before you can apply for your passport, to which you are entitled.

In the first instance, there is no doubt about the entitlement of these children to citizenship. Their parents or parent, or grandparents or grandparent, are Irish. That gives them an automatic right to citizenship. This is a processing issue. There are children all over the world and in this country who happen not to have been born on the island of Ireland who now have to go through this administrative rigmarole to get on the foreign births register in order that they can apply to have their Irish passports and enjoy the benefits they bring. In the interim, however, they do not enjoy those benefits and have to work on the passport of whichever nationality they assume, through either where they were born or whatever other means.

That is all fine, or at least it would be if it did not take so long to get onto the foreign births register. I understand the importance of the integrity of this system and that, when the Department of Foreign Affairs is establishing the veracity of somebody's parentage, birth or whatever it might be, that must be followed. That is fine, but it is taking more than two years in many instances. I was contacted by somebody in the past week whose son was born in Spain. He is Irish but he was not born on the island of Ireland. He applied for registration on the foreign births register in July 2023. He was in touch with the Department in the past week or two and was told it would be another six months before he gets an answer. That is a preposterously and unnecessarily long time, and this relates to EU country. It is not a country outside the EU where citizens need to be verified or where, perhaps, we do not have an embassy on the ground, which I could understand might slow matters down. It is a western European, developed nation whose systems we can rely on whereby, when it presents a birth certificate that lists the parentage and the fact of the child's birth, that is readily verifiable. I cannot understand why, therefore, it takes so long for children in such a position to be given the rights they naturally have under our law. It is very frustrating for them.

In recent years, especially since Covid, for example, we had problems with the processing of passports. The Department has done a really good job of dealing with that backlog and getting on top of the delivery of passports. The system is now excellent. The Passport Office now operates such that a person can get a passport within days of having applied for it. My daughter was born last year and we received her passport within a month of her birth. That is an extraordinary turnaround from where we were. It may be that resources have been diverted away from the foreign births register process, but can we now please deal with this issue? It is not fair for children or their parents that they would have to hang around for up to two years to have the certainty of a passport for their child in order that they can travel with ease. As long as they do not have that passport, they do not have the benefits of it, such as visa-free travel or access to other countries, including Ireland.

Will the Minister of State commit to speeding up the process for registration on the foreign births register, making life easier for parents and children alike and dealing with what is ultimately their right in an efficient and timely manner?

The Department of Foreign Affairs is responsible for processing applications for citizenship by descent through the foreign births register under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended. As the Senator will be aware, people born abroad may apply for citizenship through foreign birth registration if one of their grandparents was born in Ireland or if one of their parents acquired citizenship through foreign birth registration, naturalisation or post-nuptial citizenship before their birth.

Once a person is entered on the foreign births register, he or she is deemed an Irish citizen and is entitled to apply for an Irish passport. By its nature, foreign birth registration is a detailed and complex process. It can involve official documentation relating to three generations and issued by several jurisdictions. To protect the integrity of the citizenship process, these applications require careful processing to validate the identity of the applicant, the documents he or she has submitted and his or her entitlement to Irish citizenship. Accordingly, all applications undergo rigorous and detailed checking by experienced officers at the passport service, which takes time.

I am pleased to report that foreign birth registration applications are being processed within the normal turnaround time of nine months from receipt of supporting documents. Applications that are incomplete and require the passport service to engage with applicants to ask them to submit outstanding supporting documents will take longer to process. The Department is working on the modernisation of our passport and foreign birth registration services to improve the service for those applying. Following on from the success of the online passport application system, the Department will develop a modernised online application system for foreign birth registrations. This will create a more user-friendly experience, aligning the processing of foreign birth registration applications more closely with the current systems and processes in place in the award-winning passport online service.

Demand for foreign birth registration services reached unprecedented levels following the UK Brexit referendum in 2016. Prior to that referendum, foreign birth registration applications averaged at between 5,000 and 6,000 per year. Post referendum, demand for citizenship via foreign birth registration increased significantly and has remained high. In 2023, more than 35,000 applications were received by the passport service. To date this year, the passport service has received 32,200 applications, which represents increase of more than 20% on this time last year. More than 50% of applications come from applicants who reside in the United Kingdom. Due to the dramatic increase in the number of applications post Brexit, the processing time for foreign birth registration applications stood at 18 months prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The foreign birth registration service was also impacted by Covid-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021, and in total the foreign birth registration service was paused for 15 months over the period 2020 to 2021. Once normal services resumed following the pandemic, the foreign birth registration processing time was more than two years. Since September 2022, significant additional resources have been deployed to foreign birth registration processing, and I am pleased to inform the Senator that as a result of the deployment of significant additional resources to foreign birth registration, processing time has been reduced to a turnaround time of between eight and nine months, or a 75% reduction in processing time on two years ago.

The Department is fully committed to maintaining the resources needed to assist with dealing with the high volume of foreign birth registration applications.

I thank the Minister of State. I agree with what he said in acknowledging the excellence of the Passport Office. I would never doubt that and it does exceptional work. I also acknowledge the fact the number of applications under the scheme has increased greatly, as the Minister of State said, from about 5,000 to about 35,000 per annum, a massive increase. It is not enough to say, however, that the processing time after Covid was up to two years. We are no longer in that situation. There may be a backlog, but the application to which I refer is taking up to two years and there must be a qualitative difference between an application from a child born in Malaysia, a child born in Spain and a child born in the UK. They must all be slightly different, and it must be easier when dealing with a European Union country, such as Spain, to be able to establish more quickly the facts involved. I do not accept that nine months is a reasonable timeline, even if that is now the expected timeline. It must be faster than that. The time has come to take the resources and the attitude we took to the passport backlog and apply it to foreign birth registration. It needs to be sped up.

I absolutely agree with the Senator's final point. The Passport Office has shown it is capable of resolving a backlog and delivering a wonderful digitised service. I am responsible for the digitisation of Government public services and that is one of the jewels in the crown. A constituent has reported to me that they went to renew a passport at lunchtime and it arrived in the post the next morning. That level of service is what people expect to see. Having to wait two years to prove that your grandmother is Irish and that you are related to her seems like a very long time. Clearly, the office has reduced the times. The passport service is saying there are cases where the documentation is incomplete and where it has to request additional documentation from the person, which can add time. It claims it should currently take between eight and nine months.

The passport service also tells me the Public Appointments Service is recruiting additional staff to meet current and forecast demands for foreign birth registration. The recruiting of additional staff is one part, and the automation and digitisation of the service is the next part. It has experienced a sevenfold increase. Clearly, whatever method it had previously for working with 5,000 applications a year does not work for 35,000. Nobody should have to wait two years to register the fact their grandparent is Irish and that they are related to him or her. That seems to be an extremely long period and it causes all manner of problems for people when they are trying to enter either employment or university and prove their citizenship. I know that the Department of Foreign Affairs will fix this, and I will mention it to the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, when I next see him.