Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

Last week, I was delighted to attend the citizenship ceremonies, along with the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Collins. We welcomed more than 7,500 new Irish citizens. My Department is commitment to providing the best possible service to the customers of our citizenship division. We have taken significant steps to speed up the process for applicants. The steps have included the introduction of an online digital application and e-vetting. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that these changes are dramatically reducing the times. The median processing time for a decision on application in 2024 was eight months. This is a significant improvement in processing times, which were 15 months in 2023, 19 months in 2022 and 24 months in 2021. There has been a significant step change in the process.

The number of naturalisation applications received by the Department in 2020 was 10,807. By 2023, that had increased to 22,690 and in 2024, we saw 27,032 applications. Despite this substantial increase in applications being received in recent years, the fact that our processing times have significantly reduced is a huge credit to the work of staff in the Department's citizenship division. I thank them for that. The division has gone from processing approximately 12,000 applications per year to processing more than 20,000 per year. I expect that going forward the majority of applicants will continue to receive a decision within one year. It is important to note, however, that no two naturalisation applications are the same. Some take longer to process than others.

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