Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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39. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the plan to reduce the wait time for citizenship applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38106/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I would like to inform the Deputy on the ongoing improvements being made to the processing of citizenship applications. Just last week, I had the honour of attending a Citizenship Ceremony in Dublin Convention Centre, and I would like to congratulate all of our newest citizens and their proud families.

Processing times are now decreasing year on year. This is a result of re-engineering and streamlining the process, the introduction of a very successful online digital application, as well as online payments, and the introduction of eVetting.

My Department has increased its decision making capacity which has had the effect of increasing the number of grants of citizenship applications from 13,598 in 2022, to 18,279 applications in 2023.

I am happy to note that, in the first 6 months of this year, a total of 16,000 decisions were made.

The median processing time for a decision on an application in 2023 was 15 months, down from a median processing time of 19 months in 2022.

Whilst a figure in respect of the current year is not yet available, based on the current output and at the current application levels, my Department expects that the median processing time will reduce again over the course of this year.

My objective into next year is that the majority of people who submit their naturalisation application based on residency through the new online digital form, will receive a decision on their application within 12 months. I look forward to delivering on this objective and acknowledge the commitment and excellent work being done by the Citizenship Division of my Department to improve the service provided to applicants.