Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 294: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average waiting time to process travel documents, 1951 convention travel document, issued to persons granted a declaration of refugee status in the State under section 17(1) Refugee Act 1996 and programme refugees, temporary travel document, may issue in specific emergency circumstances; the number of applications awaiting a decision; the number received, approved and rejected in the past 12 months; the steps he is taking to speed up the processing time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28232/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Immigration Services Section of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service that applications for Travel Documents are currently taking 5 - 6 weeks to process on receipt of fully completed applications. In all instances processing arrangements are kept under ongoing review and steps are taken to ensure that applications are dealt with as quickly as possible having regard to overall resources across the full range of services provided by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service. At the end of June 2009 there were 505 applications on hand awaiting decision.

The following table outlines the figures for the past 12 months in respect of applications processed by the Travel Document Unit.