Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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174. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he is aware of the poor reported systems availability of the new Immigration Service Delivery's Digital Contact Centre; the targeted systems availability for the Digital Contact Centre; the system's actual availability percentage of the centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3691/25]

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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175. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he is aware that the Immigration Service has apparently deactivated phone lines and emails forcing users to attempt contact only via the Immigration Service Delivery's Digital Contact Centre channel, which some users are reporting has poor systems availability; whether other contact methods can be reinstated until the Digital Contact Centre systems availability becomes more reliable; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3692/25]

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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176. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will grant an amnesty period for those users who have been attempting to make appointments via the Immigration Service Delivery's Digital Contact Centre but due to poor system availability have been unable to do so, therefore their immigration statuses are now overdue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3693/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 174 to 176, inclusive, together.

In keeping with the Government commitment to significantly enhance the delivery of public services digitally, phase one of my Department's Immigration Digital Contact Centre (DCC) went live in October 2024. The DCC is a self-service portal that enables applicants to check their immigration application status, book first-time registration appointments, and submit queries.

My Department is committed to providing the best possible service to applicants and a centralised applicant support team is in place comprising of over 20 staff to support this. Since the DCC went live more than 55,000 people have registered with the system, 15,000 appointments have been booked successfully and 47,000 customer queries have been resolved.

Work is ongoing to continuously improve the services offered by the DCC and my Department remains committed to providing the best possible service to applicants and service users.

I can inform the Deputy that due to these very high volumes of people accessing the online services in January some applicants experienced very slow speeds and sessions disconnecting, this included people wishing to make registration appointments. I am informed these technical issues are in the process of being resolved. My Department is also aware of some customers finding it difficult to register for a digital account; this issue relates mainly to the validation of identity documentation. A detailed user guide to help applicants through the process will be released in the coming days.

I appreciate this may have caused frustration from some of our applicants and my Department will work with any applicants that have been affected to ensure they can access an appointment in a timely manner without impacting adversely on their immigration status.

Queries in relation to the status of any individual immigration cases may be made directly to my Department by email using the Oireachtas Mail facility (IM), which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the email service except in cases where the response is, in the Deputy’s view, inadequate or taking too long.