Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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1929. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide a breakdown of the €950 fee for the certificate of naturalisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41082/25]

Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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1930. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the costs covered by the €950 fee for the certificate of naturalisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41083/25]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1929 and 1930 together.

The fees to be paid by an applicant for a certificate of naturalisation are governed by the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 569 of 2011).

There is an application fee of €175 and a certification fee of €950 is then required following a positive decision being reached on the naturalisation application.

The standard certification fee is set at €950, while a reduced fee of €200 applies in the case of an application made on behalf of a minor or in certain cases where the application is made by a widow, widower or surviving civil partner of an Irish citizen. In the case of recognised refugees and stateless persons, there is no certification fee.

The State has not increased the fees for naturalisation applications since 2011.

The current certification fee of €950 reflects the effort and costs involved in processing naturalisation applications, over and above the physical cost of production of each certificate and, importantly, the need to continue to invest in measures to improve and modernise the services provided to applicants.

In light of the various aspects and stages involved in processing naturalisation applications, it is not possible to provide a breakdown of the administrative costs associated at each stage.

Citizenship Division have invested significantly in recent years to develop digital solutions to enhance and speed up the application process including introducing an online digital application, online payments, and the introduction of e-vetting.

This digitisation has facilitated a record number of citizenship decisions made last year. 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 made more than 31,000 decisions in 2024.

I am also pleased to inform the Deputy that these changes are dramatically reducing processing times. The median processing time for a decision on an application in 2024 was 8 months, down from 15 months in 2023, and 19 months in 2022.

All of the fees payable under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended, are kept under ongoing review by my Department. However, there are no current plans to amend the fees.