Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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228. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current and-or expected residency position in the case of a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47854/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The naturalisation application from the person referred to by the Deputy was received by my Department on 7 June 2022, and continues to be processed with a view to establishing whether the applicant meets the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation. It will be submitted to me for decision in due course. 

The person named by the Deputy would have held a permission in line with the his parents immigration permission at the time of his birth. On being granted citizenship it was open to his parents to submit an application for citizenship on his behalf.

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.

Applications are processed in chronological order by date received. Due to the high volume of applications currently on hand, regrettably, processing times can be up to 19 months.

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.

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.