Results 3,521-3,540 of 15,389 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Naturalisation Applications (16 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I can advise that the Certificate of naturalisation for the person referred to by the Deputy has printed and they can expect to receive it shortly. In a little over two years the Citizenship Division of my Department has gone from processing around 12,000 applications a year to processing over 20,000 applications. This 66% increase in processing has been achieved through digitising and...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Prison Service (16 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy may be aware, the current maximum retirement age of 60 for Prison Officers and members of An Garda Síochána is set out in Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 and the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012 and in related secondary legislation. Recently the Government, approved increasing the mandatory...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including managing the deployment of personnel among the various Garda Divisions. As Minister, I have no role in these matters. I am assured that Garda management keeps the distribution of resources...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Naturalisation Applications (16 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: The naturalisation application from the person referred to by the Deputy continues to be processed by my Department. It is recognised that all applicants for citizenship would wish to have a decision on their application without delay. However, the nature of the naturalisation process is such that, for a broad range of reasons, some cases will take longer than others to process. In some...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Citizenship Applications (16 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: The naturalisation application from the person referred to by the Deputy has been approved and the Citizenship Division are now awaiting payment of fees from the applicant. In a little over two years the Citizenship Division of my Department has gone from processing around 12,000 applications a year to processing over 20,000 applications. This 66% increase in processing has been achieved...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Deportation Orders (16 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: The person referred to has made a request to have their deportation order revoked, pursuant to the provisions of section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended). This request was received on the 26 March 2024 and will be considered as soon as it is possible to do so. The decision to ensue from the consideration of this request will be that the existing deportation orders will be...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Immigration Status (16 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: An appeal by the person concerned under the Regularisation of Long Term Undocumented Migrants scheme has been received and continues to be processed. It is not possible to provide a guideline as to when processing of all appeals will be completed. It should be noted that processing times may vary depending on the complexity of the application and the number of appeals received. ...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Appointments to State Boards (16 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: An open application process to select lay members of the Judicial Appointments Commission is currently being run under the State Boards unit of the Public Appointments Service (PAS). I expect the Judicial Appointments Commission to be formally established later this year.

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Work Permits (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I again thank the Deputy for raising this. The most important thing here is that it makes sense. Sometimes we just have to apply common sense to a situation that clearly does not work. It might be a small number but there are thousands of people living here who want to work but cannot and there are people here whose spouses or partners have not come with them because of the fact they...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Work Permits (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. He has been raising it for some time, for all the reasons that he outlined and the particular cases he just mentioned in respect of people working in the State already whose spouses or partners who want to work unfortunately cannot. Some spouses and partners want to be here and some of them are not with them here because they cannot work. As the...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: Under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, as Minister, I have no role in such matters. As set out in the Garda Síochána Act 2005, and in accordance with the procedures and requirements of the Statistics Act, 1993, there is a statutory obligation for the...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Deportation Orders (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: A deportation order is a legal order to leave the State. Any person who has been ordered to leave the State and fails to do so is committing a criminal offence, and can be arrested without warrant if they come into contact with An Garda Síochána. Section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999 provides that a deportation order may be revoked. The Department receives submissions from...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Prison Service (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I have requested the information sought by the Deputy from the Irish Prison Service. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to provide the information requested in the time allowed. I will write to the Deputy directly when the information is to hand.

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Departmental Contracts (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I can inform the Deputy that there were no publicly funded contracts awarded to the company in question by my Department during the specified period.

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Immigration Policy (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: My Department has responsibility for immigration-related matters, including the entry and residence conditions of non-EU/EEA/UK/Swiss nationals wishing to pursue a course of education in the State. Such students, subject to certain conditions, are granted a Stamp 2 immigration permission typically for 1 year but can vary depending on course. Such permission may be renewed provided the...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Immigration Status (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I can advise that officials from my Department have emailed the person referred to regarding this matter on Friday 10 May 2024. They are awaiting a response before this matter can be considered any further. Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility at:...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Naturalisation Applications (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I can advise you that all Certificates of naturalisation for the February Ceremony have been printed and issued via registered post. The delay in issuing certificates is regretted and was the result of unforeseen issues with printing. This issue has been resolved and certs will be issued within a matter of weeks in future. In a little over two years the Citizenship Division of my...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Prison Service (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I propose to take Questions Nos. 78 to 81, inclusive, together. My officials in the Irish Prison Service have advised that the information requested by the Deputy is not recorded centrally and a manual examination of each individuals record would be required. Such an examination would be voluminous in nature, require a significant amount of staff time and resources and could not be...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Asylum Applications (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: The State has a duty to protect its borders and following examination, ensure that all arriving passengers are entitled to enter the State. This is a fundamental exercise of State sovereignty, which is necessary to protect the security of the State and to prevent illegal immigration. The exercise of powers in this area is at all times subject to the law and to respect for individual rights. ...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Asylum Applications (15 May 2024)

Helen McEntee: I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 84 together. I can confirm that my Department takes all necessary steps to manage the international protection process efficiently and effectively, while ensuring the integrity of those processes is maintained at all times. Making sure that applications are processed quickly means those who need our protection are given the opportunity to re-build...