Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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593. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of citizenship applications that have been finalised and determined on a monthly basis for the period January 2021 to January 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7887/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The statistics requested by the Deputy are set out in the table below.

'Cases Finalised' refers to approved applications where a certificate of naturalisation has been issued; along with applications refused, deemed ineligible or where the application was withdrawn by the applicant.

The two sets of figures are not directly comparable as an approval decision issued in any given month may not be finalised until later months. Applicants are encouraged to completed the temporary statutory declaration process within four weeks but some do not complete the process within this timeframe.

For a broad range of reasons, some cases will take longer than others to process. Processing timescales can be impacted by incomplete applications having to be returned; further documentation being required from the applicant; where the payment of the required certificate fee is awaited; or if the applicant has not been engaging with my Department.

In some instances, the input of several public agencies, both within and outside the jurisdiction is needed and the request and receipt of information from these sources can result in delays in processing some applications. Issues can also arise at the final stage of the naturalisation process, for example, where additional information comes to light which is required to be considered before a final decision is taken.

Despite these challenges, in 2021, my Department issued 11,512 citizenship decisions, which is the highest number of decisions made since 2015. My Department is also taking a number of steps to speed up the processing of applications and a number of digitisation measures have also 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 these measures, my Department's objective is to achieve an improved timeframe of 6-9 months for decisions on a majority of citizenship applications during 2022.