Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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357. 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. [15716/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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A proposal to grant the application of a certificate of naturalisation in respect of the person referred to by the Deputy was issued by my Department on 8 March 2022. This is subject to the completion and submission of the Declaration of fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the Stateand the statutory fee and other required documents. Upon receipt of this, the application will be finalised.

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.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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358. 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); if the relevant stamp can be updated in the interim; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15717/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy 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 soon 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.

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.

Last year, my Department made 11,512 citizenship decisions, which is the highest level since 2015. Additional staff have also been assigned to the citizenship team.

The person referred to by the Deputy also made an application for a permanent residence card as a family member of an EU citizen. This application was granted on 22 March 2022 and the person was advised to attend at their local registration office to obtain the Permanent Residence Document of a family member of a United Kingdom national (Stamp4).

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.