Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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434. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current position in regard to the consideration of an application for naturalisation in the case of a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31641/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The application for naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy, continues to be 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 in due course.

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.

In addition, the combined impact of the 2019 High Court judgment in the Jones case and the necessary health restrictions arising from the pandemic, has unfortunately resulted in the processing time for standard applications increasing.

However, 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.

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.

It is open to the applicant to contact the Citizenship Division of my Department at citizenshipinfo@justice.ie 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 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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435. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current position in regard to the consideration of application for naturalisation in the case of a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31642/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Applications for naturalisation and general queries in respect of same are dealt with in chronological order by date received.

When applications for a certificate of naturalisation are received by the Citizenship Division of my Department, they are subject to an initial check/examination. Citizenship Division is currently completing initial checks on applications received in December 2021.

On completion of the initial checks, my Department will contact the applicant to assign them an application number and issue an acknowledgment to the address given at the time of making the application.

I am deeply conscious of how important the granting of naturalisation is to those who apply for it and my Department has continued to accept and process citizenship applications throughout the pandemic and during all levels of public health restrictions.

However, the combined impact of the 2019 High Court judgment in the Jones case, the necessary health restrictions arising from the pandemic, and my Department's response to the Ukraine crisis has regrettably resulted in the processing time for standard applications increasing.

However, 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.

It is open to the applicant to contact the Citizenship Division of my Department at citizenshipinfo@justice.ie for an update on their application.