Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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461. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current processing time for travel documents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13135/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Travel Document Unit in the Immigration Service Delivery area of my Department processes travel documents for people who are deemed to be refugees under the 1951 United Nations Convention. This Unit also processes a separate travel document for resettled programme refugees and beneficiaries of other humanitarian and family reunification programmes.

Processing times were unfortunately impacted by the restrictions that were imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Unit has also seen a steady increase in the volume of applications.  Currently, the processing time for a travel document is 33 weeks, upon receipt of a fully completed application.

While applications are processed within my Department they are printed by the Passport Office in the Department of Foreign Affairs.  My Department works closely with the Passport Office to reduce any delays.

Work is continuing to reduce the processing times, while prioritising any urgent requests for travel documents.