Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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702. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for a breakdown of staffing levels in the immigration service delivery visa division, specifically the number of staff currently allocated to processing appeals. [45206/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy, that there are seven overseas Visa Offices in addition to the Visa Office in Dublin. The overseas offices are located in Abuja, Beijing, London, Moscow, Ankara, Abu Dhabi and New Delhi.

There are total of 108 Full Time Equivalent staff in my Department's Visa Division of which 32 staff are engaged on appeals work, many of the officers handling appeal cases will have other visa functions in addition to processing appeal applications.

The visa system is an essential part of our immigration system and is a preclearance mechanism to determine who can travel to Ireland. All applications are subject to scrutiny and must be supported by documentation to be approved.

Applications are processed in chronological order, based on date order of receipt. While every effort is made to process applications as soon as possible, processing times will vary having regard to the volume and complexity of applications, the possible need for the Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) function of the Department to investigate, inquire into, or seek further information, and the resources available.

As the Deputy may be aware, my Department has established a modernisation programme to transform its immigration operations to provide a modern, transparent system which is much more accessible and responsive to the public's needs.

The modernisation programme is restructuring the immigration system and will replace legacy information management systems, introducing a new single platform for immigration services. This platform is being delivered in phases and it will, over time, significantly improve customer service capacity.

On 24 October 2024, my Department introduced a Digital Contact Centre (DCC) for our customers. The DCC allows individuals to log in and review the status of their immigration applications.

In its first phase, the DCC can be used to check the status of and raise queries in relation to Citizenship Applications, Visa Applications, Domestic Residence Permission Applications, EU Treaty Rights Applications and Travel Documents Applications.

My Department’s new platform can be accessed at the following link:

portal.irishimmigration.ie/en/