Noel McCarthy (Cork East, Fine Gael)

We recently saw over 7,500 people conferred with Irish citizenship at ceremonies in Killarney. While this is a joyous step on their journey of becoming an Irish citizen, we have seen instances where certificates of naturalisation have taken considerable time to arrive following the ceremony. Unfortunately, this can cause undue problems for the applicants when applying for a passport or seeking to pay third level fees ahead of an upcoming academic year. Can the Minister of State advise on the current waiting time to receive a certificate of naturalisation after attending a naturalisation ceremony and the actions being taken by the Department to ensure that these times are kept to a minimum?

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