Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 414: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on whether it is satisfactory that it takes more than two years for an application for citizenship by naturalisation to be examined; and if he will put in place a more efficient system. [8540/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The average processing time for an application for naturalisation is approximately 24 months. This is due primarily to the significant increase in the volume of applications being received in the last few years. A total of 1,004 applications for naturalisation were received in 2000. The equivalent figures in 2002, 2003 and 2004 were 3,574, 3,580 and 4,074 respectively. A redeployment of staff within the asylum and immigration area of my Department is underway. The citizenship area is one of the areas which is benefitting from this process. Between September 2004 and the present time, an additional 17 staff have been assigned to citizenship work and it is anticipated that these additional personnel, coupled with an ongoing review of procedures, will impact of the processing time for applications for naturalisation in the near future.