Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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400. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons waiting on results from citizenship applications. [30042/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The processing of citizenship applications has had a number of challenges over the past 12 months. A legal challenge taken in the High Court last year by an applicant who was refused a certificate of naturalisation due to his absences from the State during the last year continuous prior to the date of his application. The outcome of this ruling – which was subsequently successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal – resulted in significant delays to the processing of citizenship applications last year. This has been compounded by COVID-19 restrictions which has resulted in significant challenges to the delivery of normal services to date this year.

Currently, there are approximately 21,000 citizenship applications on hand, at various stages of processing within the system, ranging from those just received by my Department to those where a decision has been made but it is not possible to issue an invitation to a ceremony.

A series of measures have been approved to address this caseload over the coming period. As part of these measures I expect to bring clarity to the situation of those applicants awaiting an invitation to a citizenship ceremony very shortly.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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401. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of students waiting on results from citizenship applications. [30043/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy is not compiled in a manner to allow for the identification of applications for naturalisation made by students, including from those who have received results in this year's Leaving Certificate.

The retrieval of this data would require a case by case examination of all applications received and would represent a significant diversion of resources from day to day processing.

However, I can say that currently, there are 265 applications on hand, at various stages of processing within the system, where the applicants are in the 16 to 18 years age group.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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402. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps that can be taken by a person (details supplied) due to their circumstances. [30045/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy, continues to be processed. The Citizenship Division of the Immigration Service of my Department corresponded with the applicant in March of this year, advising that the application was undergoing further processing.

The granting of Irish citizenship through naturalisation is a privilege and an honour which confers certain rights and entitlements not only within the State but also at European Union level and it is important that appropriate procedures are in place to preserve the integrity of the process.

It is recognised that all applicants for citizenship would wish to have a decision on their application without delay. While most straightforward cases are now processed within twelve months, the nature of the naturalisation process is such that, for a broad range of reasons, some cases will take longer than others to process. In some instances, completing the necessary checks can take a considerable period of time.

If the person concerned has a query in respect of their application, they should contact the Citizenship Division of the Immigration Service of my Department at: .

Queries in relation to third level fees and the SUSI grant are a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to the Immigration Service of my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response is, in the Deputy’s view, inadequate or too long awaited.