Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 384: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the waiting time for the processing of applications for naturalisation; the number of applications in hand; the expected date on which applications at present in his Department will be determined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13402/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The average processing time for a certificate of naturalisation is 24 months. This is due primarily to the increase in the volume of applications being received in the past few years. The table below sets out the numbers of applications received and the number of certificates issued in the period 2000 to 2004.

There are 1,808 applications in the course of being processed and 6,198 applications awaiting processing.

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 full-time and part-time staff have been assigned to citizenship work and it is anticipated that these additional personnel, coupled with initiatives to which I referred in my answer to Parliamentary Question No. 153 of 24 March 2005, will impact of the processing time for applications for naturalisation.