Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Citizenship Division of my Department have advised a Certificate of Naturalisation issued to the person referred to by the Deputy on 5 February 2024.

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.

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 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.

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.