Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

359. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the progress to date in the determination of an application for citizenship in the case of a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13796/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Applications for naturalisation received by my Department are processed in chronological order. The application for the person referred to by the Deputy will be registered in the coming weeks. Following initial assessment of the application, an application reference number will be issued by my Department. 

It is open to the person concerned to contact the Citizenship Division of my Department at: citizenshipinfo@justice.ie. They should quote their reference number when received in all further correspondence with my Department. 

My Department is 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. From the beginning of this year, applicants are also no longer required to submit their original passport with their initial application.

In 2021, my Department issued 11,512 citizenship decisions, which is the highest number of decisions made since 2015, and reflects positively the significant changes undertaken to date. Additional staff have also been assigned to the citizenship team. Based on these measures, my Department's objective is to achieve an improved timeframe of 6-9 months for decisions on a majority of applications during 2022.

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.