Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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155. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of "permission to remain in the State as the spouse of an Irish national" applications currently queued for processing at this time; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56758/22]

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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156. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average length of time that a "permission to remain in the State as the spouse of an Irish national" is queued to be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56759/22]

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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157. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average turnaround for a "permission to remain in the State as the spouse of an Irish national" application; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56760/22]

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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158. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of "permission to remain in the State as the spouse of an Irish national" applications currently being actively processed by the residence division of her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56761/22]

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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159. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of staff in the residence division of her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56762/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 155, 156, 157, 158 and 159 together.

The Spouse of Irish National (SOIN) Unit of the Immigration Service Delivery in my Department deals with complex cases involving detailed assessment of the individual circumstances and compliance with relevant scheme criteria and various legal requirements. While every effort is made to process such written applications efficiently, processing times will vary due to a number of factors, such as the number of applications on hands, individual circumstances, the complexity of applications, whether further information is required, and the resources available.

The Unit endeavours to process applications as quickly as possible and I am advised that some cases may be processed within months of receipt. However more complex applications take in excess of 12 months to complete.

To be fair to all applicants, applications are dealt with in chronological order by date received and there are currently 289 applications at various stages of processing, details provided in the table below;

Currently the Spouse of an Irish National (SOIN) Unit has 4 staff, a Higher Executive Officer, an Executive Officer and 2 Clerical Officers.