Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for that offer. I might take him up on that. I have a number of cases in Clonmel, in particular, that I need to get through as quickly as possible. I understand the turnaround time is 1.3 weeks. Is it possible to get a breakdown of what it is per county for Tipperary? It is definitely not what I am experiencing. Another question, which is important, is whether that average turnaround time includes Ukrainian citizens who arrived in the past year. Their turnaround time is four days. If you take between 80,000 and 100,000 Ukrainians who have come into the country, that is 100,000 from the 300,000 where the average turnaround is four days. That means that for people who are not Ukrainians, the average time is much higher than the 1.3 weeks.

I want to find about the crux of the average time, which I hope the Department can help me with. What is the average turnaround time for people who went for work permits, visas and then applied for PPS numbers? What is the average time just for the PPS number? That is the issue I am having. It is not with Ukrainians, Irish citizens and newborns. Everything is on time, except for people who are coming here from outside of Europe, applying for a work permit and then for a visa and waiting a long time for a PPS number.

I welcome the fact the Minister of State and the Department are looking to streamline the work permits and visas going forward. The work done already in speeding up the issuing of work permits has been really impressive. To align that with the visa application is important.