Written answers

Tuesday, 27 July 2021

Department of Justice and Equality

Naturalisation Applications

Photo of Gary GannonGary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1416. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the reason for the delay in the naturalisation process for a person (details supplied); and when the person will receive the outcome of the citizenship application. [41387/21]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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An application for a certificate of naturalisation was received from the person referred to by the Deputy on 2 January 2020. This application is currently being processed with a view to establishing whether the applicant meets the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation and will be submitted to me for decision as expeditiously as possible.

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. However, 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.

Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility at: INISOireachtasMail@justice.ie, 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 Question process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in the cases where the response is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.

Photo of Gary GannonGary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1417. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the reason for the delay in the naturalisation process for a person (details supplied); and when the person will receive the outcome of the citizenship application. [41388/21]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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An application for a certificate of naturalisation was received from the person referred to by the Deputy on 30 December 2019. This application is currently being processed with a view to establishing whether the applicant meets the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation and will be submitted to me for decision as expeditiously as possible.

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. However, 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.

Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility at: INISOireachtasMail@justice.ie, 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 Question process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in the cases where the response is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.

Photo of Gary GannonGary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1418. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average timeline for applications to Irish citizenship through naturalisation receiving an outcome of granted or denied; and if she will provide the current number of applications waiting in the system for over two and half years or 30 months and over five years. [41389/21]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The tables below set out the figures requested by the Deputy.

Table 1 - Average Timelines

Year Average processing time for an approval Decision (months) Average processing time for a refusal Decision (months)
2018 7 23
2019 10 24
2020 12 35
*2021 23 155

* Please note that the 2021 refusal figure is skewed by the closing of a significant number of applications where the applicant had failed to engage with the Citizenship Division of my Department for several years. In order to close these applications, a refusal decision had to be recorded for each case.

Table 2 - Number of open applications

Over 30 months but less than 5 years 3902
Over 5 years 517

The granting of Irish citizenship through naturalisation is governed by the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended. All applications for a certificate of naturalisation are processed and assessed individually in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

However, I am deeply conscious of how important the granting of naturalisation is to those who apply for it and my Department has continued to accept and process citizenship applications throughout the pandemic and at all levels of public health restrictions. However, processing rates have been negatively impacted by the necessary health and safety related restrictions imposed and by a High Court case in 2019, which was subsequently successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal.

For applicants that were in the final stages of processing, on 18 January 2021, my Department opened a temporary system to enable applicants to complete their naturalisation process by signing a statutory declaration of loyalty. Since then, my Department has delivered on its commitment to communicate with 6,500 applicants by the end of June, inviting them to complete the final steps required prior to the granting of a certificate of naturalisation. Over 4,400 people have received their certificates so far.

To further address the volume of applications on hand, additional staff are being assigned to the citizenship team; and a number of digitisation measures have been introduced to increase efficiency in the process including eTax clearance, eVetting and online payments.

The end result of the digitisation process will be to free up more staff to focus on processing applications in a timely and efficient manner, to improve service to our customers and reduce waiting times. Based on this, my objective is to achieve an improved decision making timeframe of 6-9 months for a majority of applications during 2022.

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