Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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350. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when candidates who attended their citizenship ceremonies in October 2023 can expect to receive their certificates of naturalisation in view that it is now over 20 weeks since the ceremonies took place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9117/24]

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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352. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when candidates who attended their citizenship ceremonies in December 2023 can expect to receive their certificates of naturalisation in view that it is now over nine weeks since the ceremonies took place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9127/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 335, 336, 350 and 352 together.

In a little over two years Citizenship Division has gone from processing around 12,000 applications a year to processing over 20,000 applications. This 66% increase in processing has been achieved through digitising and streamlining processes.

Last year Citizenship Division more than doubled the number of Citizenship Ceremonies available to applicants with 15 held over the course of the year. These took place in the RDS, Dublin in March, in the INEC, Killarney in June, and in the Convention Centre in both October and December. This was a significant increase on 6 Citizenship Ceremonies held in 2022.

I recognise that the delay in receiving a Naturalisation Certificate is frustrating for people and my Department is examining on how to speed up the delivery of Certificates for future Ceremonies to be held this year.

I am advised that all of the Certificates for the Ceremonies held in October 2023 have issued. However, if any applicant has not received their Certificate for any reason they should contact Citizenship Division directly at citizenshipinfo@justice.ie.

I am also advised that the majority of the 6,000 Certificates for people that attended the December ceremonies have now issued. Any applicants that are yet to receive their certificate can be assured that they will receive their Certificate of Naturalisation via registered post in the coming weeks.

Citizenship Division currently have 28,485 applications on hand all at varying stages of the application process.

The below table outlines various stages of processing for the requested years.

Finally, I can advise the Deputy that the Citizenship Division of my Department will continue to communicate regularly with all applicants to keep them informed on updates on processing times and arrangements.