Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1597.To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the plans to cut the current citizenship application processing times; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33224/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In just 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 in 2023 and has already made more than 16,000 decisions to date in 2024.

As the Deputy may be aware, over 10,000 people were naturalised at the Citizenship Ceremonies held across June 2024.

The previous backlogs in application processing in Citizenship had arisen largely due to the legacy of restrictions imposed on staff attendance in the office during the pandemic.

Since then, Citizenship Division have taken a significant number of steps to speed up the process for applicants. These included introducing an online digital application, online payments, and the introduction of eVetting. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that these changes are dramatically reducing processing times.