Written answers

Tuesday, 28 February 2017

Department of Justice and Equality

Immigration Controls

Photo of Noel RockNoel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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157. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of times the INIS online appointment booking system for immigration registration has crashed or gone offline since it was launched in September 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10172/17]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by officials in the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service of my Department that the new Appointment Management System (AMS) was introduced in September 2016. Since then, over 42,000 appointments have been made. This system brought an end for the need for customers to queue at the Burgh Quay offices for registration purposes. The autumn is the busiest period in the office and over 2,000 more appointments were made in autumn 2016 as compared to autumn 2015. During the first quarter of 2017, an additional 2,500 appointments were offered, as compared to the same period in 2016.

At the launch of the AMS back in September there was a minor technical issue with the design of the system and it was taken off line for four days while this was rectified. Apart from that there was one outage of two hours in October and two others for a matter of minutes. It should be noted that the system operates on a 24 hour, seven days a week basis and apart from scheduled maintenance on one Saturday each month, it has had over 95% availability since 'go live'.

INIS advises applicants to book an appointment up to ten weeks before their permission expires. Applicants who have not managed to secure an appointment before the expiry of their permission should check the website at 2:30pm daily to secure an early appointment. I understand that INIS regularly monitors the system and will refine it as required. I am informed that INIS recognises that emergency situations can arise. Such cases are with dealt with on a case by case basis and enquiries should be sent to burghquayregoffice@justice.ie. Since September the Burgh Quay registration office has facilitated in the region of 800 emergency appointments.

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