Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That would be welcome because people are worried about, for example, sending in their passport, particularly when the quality of communication, not from the Minister of State but from the Department, is sometimes opaque about what is being sought. I have complaints from people who say there is nobody to talk to, there is only a generic email address and they do not necessarily get a response. I have four cases of people who are married to Irish citizens and have Irish kids. One lady was married to an Irish citizen for 41 years and domiciled here for 50 years. These people are all in difficulties in trying to get citizenship. All of them are in the system for two years and in some cases for over two years. It is very difficult because of the implications on their lives. We put in representations on behalf of these people, including one gentleman who has been living full-time in Ireland for nearly ten years. I was told that his application was at an advanced stage two years into the application. Three months later the answer is unchanged. That may be so but people need better information than that, particularly when they are being asked for years and years of bank statements, current passports and everything else. They are putting their lives in the hands of the process and they are not getting the information back.

See this speech in context