Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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1244. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps that are being taken to ensure that the immigration and naturalisation process is protected from persons who are booking up available slots and then reselling them to persons that are desperate for an appointment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19407/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department's Registration Office in Burgh Quay is responsible for registering immigration permissions for customers residing in the Dublin area only. First time registrations outside of the Dublin area are processed by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) through the Garda Station network. The allocation of appointments with GNIB is a matter for An Garda Síochána.

As part of my Department’s ongoing work to meet the current unprecedented demand for first-time registration appointments, on 10 January 2022, a Freephone service (1800 741 741) was introduced for customers.

The  current operating hours are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and all appointments for Dublin based customers to register their immigration permission are now issued through this service. Operators offer one appointment per call, unless it is for an identifiable family group. To date, the service has offered 15,350 appointments with a further 10,850 appointments offered to 4 July 2022.

The Registration Office’s customer service team is also available to support customers who may have language difficulties or who may need assistance with translation. A number of multi-lingual videos describing the registration process and what to expect are available on my Department's website www.irishimmigration.ie.

Since the onset of the pandemic, immigration permissions have been extended nine times, which means that people who held a valid permission to be in the State in March 2020 are legally permitted to remain until 31 May 2022.

Dublin based customers who are seeking to renew their permission can continue to do so online at  inisonline.jahs.ie/user/login.