Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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538. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality how his Department has addressed the practice of scammers block-booking appointments with the Garda National Immigration Bureau; if he will report on the effect of the launch of the new phone number for the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26140/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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My Department's Registration Office in Burgh Quay is responsible for registering immigration permissions for customers residing in the Dublin area only. First time registrations and renewals for customers outside of the Dublin area are processed by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) through the Garda Station network. The allocation of appointments with GNIB is a matter for An Garda Síochána.

As part of the Department’s ongoing work to meet the demand for first-time registration appointments, on 10 January 2022 a Freephone service (1800 800 630) was introduced for customers. The current operating hours are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and all appointments for Dublin based customers to register their immigration permission are now issued through this service.

Operators of the Freephone service offer one appointment per call, unless it is for an identifiable family group and this thereby helps to eliminate the possibility of block booking of appointments. Customers can also use this Freephone number to reschedule or cancel an appointment.

25,098 appointments for first time registration were issued to customers between January and the end of April this year. Appointment slots are released up to 3 months ahead, while the earliest appointment currently available is typically within 1 week. 18,114 first time registrations were carried out in the Burgh Quay Registration Office during the same period.

Additionally, the process of renewing immigration permissions for customers residing in the Dublin area moved from an in-person appointment in the Burgh Quay Immigration Office to an online portal in July 2020. To date, over 230,000 applications have been processed through this system. The online renewal application is available at: inisonline.jahs.ie.

My Department's Registration Office customer service team is also available to support customers who may have language difficulties or who may need assistance with translation. A number of multi-lingual videos describing the registration process and what to expect are available on my Department's website www.irishimmigration.ie.