Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1209. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applications for Irish citizenship received by INIS in each month from January 2019 to August 2023 inclusive, in tabular form; the number therein of those applications in each month where acknowledgement letters have been issued to the applicant, the applications have been processed, citizenship has been granted, the application was refused, the application remains undecided; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38815/23]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am very conscious of how important the granting of naturalisation is to all of those who apply for it. My Department is aware that delays in processing times are frustrating and disruptive for applicants, and are working hard to improve the position.

Table 1 below sets out the monthly number of applications received since January 2019. However statistics are not maintained in such a way as to provide the further information requested by the Deputy.

I can advise the Deputy that to the end of August 2023, 8,498 naturalisation certificates have already issued in 2023 and that approximately 5,199 of the applications on hand have in fact received a positive decision and are now in the process of making their final payment and/or being scheduled to attend a citizenship ceremony. The number of applications currently on hand at the end of August is 30,400, of which approximately 13,761 were received in the first eight months of this year.

In addition some 43,144 Certificates of Naturalisation issued for the period 2019 to 2023 YtD, provided below in Table 2.

I can confirm that the Citizenship Division are in the process of sending invitations to applicants for the next Citizenship Ceremonies that are scheduled for 2 October 2023 , with further invitations to issue for Ceremonies to take place before the end of the year.

Significant changes are underway within the naturalisation process as the Citizenship Division examines how it can become more efficient. As a result of these changes, the vast majority of files from 2021 and 2022 are now in the final stages of processing and it is expected to make decisions on them this year, wherever possible. It is further hoped that the vast majority of 2022 files will be processed in less time that the current average processing time of 19 months.

Table 1: Applications received.

Table 2: Citizenship Certificates Issued.