Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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1097. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average processing times for citizenship applications (details supplied) in each of the years 2015 to date in 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13617/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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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.

In 2022 there were 13,613 Certificates of Naturalisation issued, including 1,719 in respect of minor applicants. This represents a 39% increase on the number of certificates issued for 2021 (9,780) and demonstrates the Departments commitment to processing applications in a timely manner.

There are ongoing developments and improvements being made to the citizenship application process. Significant reforms have been introduced for customers to streamline the number of proofs required to establish their identity and residency as part of the application process. A new scorecard was introduced to help applicants to complete their applications. Since this initiative went live, a preliminary review of applications received indicates that the quality of the applications has markedly improved.

I welcome this development which builds on other innovative measures introduced in the application process, including the deployment of “Tara” the e-chat bot, as well as e-payments, e-tax clearance and Gardaí e-vetting, and the removal of the requirement to provide the original passport when making an application, all of which have positively enhanced the applicant's experience.

I have provided in the table below the average processing time in months for citizenship applications for the years 2015–2022 and up to the end of February 2023.

The current median processing time is 19 months. The median figure is more representative of the ‘normal’ processing time as cases with unusually long processing times can skew the data.