Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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326. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the reason that naturalisation applications are taking so long to process with many taking over two years; the stages involved in assessing applications; the plans that she has to shorten the processing time without interfering with the integrity of the process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49312/22]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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327. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average time that it is taking for naturalisation applications to be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49313/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 326 and 327 together.

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

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.

Regrettably, the current average processing time for naturalisation applications is approximately 19 months.

My Justice Plan 2022 commits to developing a fully digital, customer-centric immigration service and to enhance the efficiency of our immigration system. In line with these commitments, a number of actions have been taken to reduce the impact on immigration processing times, including the introduction of online applications, a new customer service helpdesk and a new customer-focused immigration website.

As a result of the introduction of the temporary statutory declaration process in January 2021, and the assignment of additional staff to the citizenship team, last year, 11,512 citizenship decisions were made. This is the highest number of decisions made annually since 2015 and reflects positively the significant changes undertaken to date.

For the first six months of 2022, almost 7,900 citizenship decisions have been issued, including 1,005 decisions on minor applications. This exceeds the total number of minor decisions issued during the whole of last year when 868 minor decisions were made.

Since 1 January 2022, new applicants for citizenship no longer have to submit their original passport with their application. Instead, they can provide a full colour copy of their passport. This is freeing up staff that up to now have been engaged in returning passports to applicants and will also help to reduce processing times.

A previous examination by the Department of the citizenship application process indicated that incorrectly submitted applications were diverting considerable resources from general processing, resulting in the slowing down of all applications and adversely impacting on customer service. Therefore, significant effort has gone into clarifying the application guidelines published on the Department's immigration website (www.irishimmigration.ie) and on making the application process itself more customer friendly, including the introduction of the new scorecard structure for proof of identity and residence.

The scorecard was introduced to help applicants to complete their applications with greater certainty than before. Since the go-live of the scorecards, a preliminary review of applications received indicates that the quality of the applications has markedly improved.

This is a welcome development and builds on other innovative measures recently introduced in the citizenship application process, including the deployment of “Tara” the e-chat bot, e-payments, e-tax clearance and Gardaí e-vetting, and the removal of the requirement to provide the original passport when making an application. These measures have improved the service to our customers and are contributing to a reduction in processing times.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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328. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when an application for naturalisation by a person (details supplied) will be processed; the reason that it is taking so long taking into account that the person has lived legally in Ireland for 40 years and is married to an Irish person; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49314/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The naturalisation application from the person referred to by the Deputy was acknowledged as having been received by Citizenship division on 23 May 2022, and continues to be processed by my Department, with a view to establishing whether the applicant meets the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation.

Citizenship Division have requested further documentation from the person concerned and they should provide this documentation as soon as possible, if they haven't already.

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.

Applications are processed in chronological order by date received. Due to the high volume of applications currently on hand, regrettably, average 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 been introduced to increase efficiency in the process, including eTax clearance, eVetting and online payments.

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.