Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The naturalisation application from the person cited by the Deputy has been received and is awaiting registration by the Citizenship Division of my Department.

Once registered officials from the Citizenship Division will write to the person concerned issuing a Personal ID and Citizenship application reference number.

I recognise that all applicants for citizenship would wish to have a decision on their application without delay. There are no provisions to apply different criteria depending on the category of employment or profession of the applicant, or any intended purpose of naturalisation such as sporting representation. Unfortunately, applications cannot be expedited on these grounds.

My Department has recently moved from paper to online based citizenship applications. This is one of a number of measures introduced in an effort to optimise the application process and enhance the overall customer service experience. As part of the new online process, customers are issued with an acknowledgment on submission of the online application. The forms provide a seamless application process and help guide applicants through what is required for an application.

In a little over two years the Citizenship Division of my Department 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.

At present the median processing times for naturalisation applications remains at 19 months. It is hoped that this will improve in 2024.