Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that Travel Documents are processed by the Travel Documents Unit of my Department with the assistance of the Passport Office in the Department of Foreign Affairs.

In recent times, the Unit has experienced a very high volume of applications requiring processing and this, along with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, has unfortunately had a negative impact on processing times. Regrettably, the current lead time for the issuance of a travel document is 32 weeks.

Efforts are being made by my Department to process applications as quickly as possible, including the provision of additional staff to the Unit and the roll out of replacement technology.

The person referred to by the Deputy's can contact the Travel Document Section directly at: INISTravdoc@justice.ie at any time for an update on their application.

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.