Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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138. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if a significant additional workload has been placed on the operations of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, since the introduction of the British-Irish visa scheme for Indian and Chinese visitors; the additional staff that have been allocated to INIS to deal with this increased workload; and her plans or proposals to extend this scheme to other countries. [25576/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to say that the British Irish Visa Scheme has been very successful to date in attracting more Chinese and Indian visitors to both Ireland (North and South) and the United Kingdom by enabling both countries immigration systems to work in tandem to promote and facilitate legitimate business and tourism travel. For example, in China the number of short-term visas has increased by 35% in 2015 and by a further 15% this year to date. Of course these figures only reveal part of the story as a large number of visitor visas have also been granted by the UK authorities for the countries involved enabling these visitors to travel onwards to Ireland. The volume increases reported by Tourism Ireland bears this out.

I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that an integral part of the scheme is the utilisation of modern technology and information systems to capture biographical and biometric information for all visa applicants, and the use of joint (with the UK) Visa Application Centres across China and India for the lodgement of visa applications and the initial processing of documentation. This provides a greater coverage for customers as well as changing the processing procedures in the visa offices. It also ensured that the operation of Scheme has not incurred a significant additional workload beyond dealing with increased visa application volumes. In that regard an additional two local staff have been employed in the Beijing Visa Office to assist with office administration and with visa processing.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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139. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of staff currently allocated to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS; if she is aware that there is a significant backlog of short-stay tourist visa applications; if she will detail the cause of these delays and the way this backlog in processing visa applications is being created; the additional resources that have been applied to deal with the backlog; and when she envisages the backlog to be cleared. [25577/16]

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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140. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if there has been any discussion or correspondence between her office and the office of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport regarding the long delays in processing short-stay tourist visas; and the way this is impacting on potential visitors to Ireland. [25578/16]

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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142. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the current average waiting time to receive a short-stay tourist visa for Ireland. [25580/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 139, 140 and 142 together.

I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that, at the end of June, 2016 the staff allocation to INIS was 636. Staff are deployed across a wide range of activities including the broad areas of asylum and immigration processing, border management and policy areas of the organisation. In that context, the management of resources is kept under constant review having regard to business and operational requirements, and staff are deployed accordingly.

I am further advised that the current processing time for short-stay tourist visa applications by the INIS Visa Office in Dublin is approximately 10 weeks. The published processing time advertised to applicants is 8 weeks. The current timescales are due in the main to seasonal pressures coupled with a significant increase in the number of applications in all visa categories. The Deputy can be assured that every effort is being made to process these applications as quickly as possible and additional staff and staff on overtime have been deployed to that effect.

It is planned that the processing times for short-stay visit visas in Dublin will return to the normal business target of 6-8 weeks very shortly. Applications to Irish Visa Offices and Consular Missions abroad are generally processed within this business target. I understand my colleague the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has not been in touch with my office in relation to this matter.