Mr. Michael Kirrane:

We process approximately 250,000 applications per annum, stretching from visas at the front end of the process through to immigration permissions and citizenship applications at the other end of the process. We have seen an increase in volume across the board in the past year, particularly for visas and registration of immigration permissions. That is probably a function of the economic upturn as much as anything else.

We are deploying additional staff in our offices in Beijing and New Delhi to deal with visas. We are considering taking some of the applications from those locations to process them in Dublin where we believe centralising those functions will provide a more efficient and effective service.

My colleague, Mr. Ward, will outline more broadly some of the measures we are taking as part of our reform programme with a view to improving service. Our number of staff has increased significantly in the past two years. We intend to recruit further staff in the coming months to deal with the increase in numbers and process cases faster. Some cases take longer than others. Visit visas are processed in a matter of days.

More complex cases can take time to process because there is a due process that has to be gone through, which often involves Garda checks and checks that we do with our UK colleagues, among others. Our aim is to reduce the processing time as much as possible and we intend to use more technology in delivering those services.