Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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212. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applications at various stages of processing in the spouse of an Irish National Unit currently; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14113/23]

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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213. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applications 'in the queue for processing' in the Spouse of an Irish National Unit currently; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14114/23]

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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214. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average processing time for an application in the Spouse of an Irish National Unit currently, excluding the time it is queued for said processing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14115/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 212, 213 and 214 together.

The Immigration Service of my Department currently has 205 spouse of an Irish national applications on hand at various stages of processing.

A non-EEA national spouse of an Irish national who intends to enter and reside in the State long term may apply for a pre-clearance permission prior to their arrival. This allows them to be granted a Stamp 4 immigration permission once they enter the State and to register that permission at their local immigration office.

Where the spouse of an Irish national arrives in the State without having applied for a pre-clearance permission they are required to make an application to remain in the State. When applying for a Spouse of Irish National (SOIN) application, the acknowledgement letter issued to customers confirms that applications can take up to 12 months to finalise.

In order to be fair to all applicants, applications are dealt with in chronological order. My Department endeavours to process applications as quickly as possible. However, processing times may vary due to a number of factors, such as the number of applications on hand, individual circumstances, the complexity of applications, whether further information is required, and the resources available.

More information on spouse of an Irish national application is available on my Department's immigration website at:  www.irishimmigration.ie/my-situation-has-changed-since-i-arrived-in-ireland/spouse-civil-partner-of-irish-national-scheme/