Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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332. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 368 of 27 September 2022, his plans to increase the number of staff to ensure that a faster processing timeline is achieved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49404/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can inform the Deputy that all efforts are being made to ensure that there are sufficient resources available to provide customers with an acceptable standard of service. However, as the Deputy will be aware there are unprecedented demands on Immigration Services as a result of both the Ukraine crisis and increasing numbers of applicants seeking International Protection at a time when there is competition for resources across every sector of the economy. My Department, including Immigration Services, will continue to resource priority areas to meet the demands.

All Citizenship Applications are processed in chronological order by date received. 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 and this increased efficiency has continued in 2022.

Due to the high volume of applications currently on hand, regrettably, processing times can average 19 months.