Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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515. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if an emergency travel document will issue in the case of a person (details supplied) who has now submitted all the required documentation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35695/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department has not received an application from the person referred to by the Deputy for a travel document.

Due to the high volume of travel document applications currently on hand, it should also be noted that any new application submitted would not be completed by 11 July 2022.

The person concerned has permission to remain in the State on stamp 4 conditions until 16 June 2023. 

Their application for naturalisation continues to be processed with a view to establishing whether they meet 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.

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.