Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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347. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the reason for the delay in processing a visa application by a person (details supplied); the actions that she will take to address this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13613/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The person referred to by the Deputy submitted an application for a EU1 - Residence card with the EU Treaty Rights Division of my Department, which was received on 28 February 2022. 

The Unit, like all processing areas of my Department, has been negatively impacted by the public health restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with minimal access allowed to the office at certain times. This has regrettably resulted in significant delays in dealing with correspondence received in the office and an increase in processing times for all applications. 

The EU Treaty Rights Unit is currently issuing acknowledgments and application reference numbers to applicants approximately 6-8 weeks after an application is received.

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 (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 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.