Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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2009. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for a breakdown of processing times for family reunification visa applications by country, in tabular form. [42019/25]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I understand the Deputy is referring to family reunification as provided for in Section 56 of the International Protection Act 2015, which allows people granted International Protection status to apply for certain family members to join them in the State.

The application processing times of individual nationalities are not recorded by my Department. However, I can inform the Deputy that the median processing time for applications in 2024 was approximately 16 months.

Furthermore the top five nationalities granted a family reunification permission under Section 56 of the International Protection Act 2015 in 2024 were Somalia, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Sudan.

All processing procedures and times are kept under ongoing review by my Department and every effort is made to keep these to a minimum.

It should be noted that no two applications are the same and that numerous factors can impact processing times. Processing times can vary depending on the nature of the application, the documentation supplied, and the detailed and often complex assessment that is required to be carried out on such applications.

I understand that people are eager to have their families join them in the State and I want to assure anyone who has an application submitted, that the Family Reunification Unit of my Department is doing everything possible to progress applications as quickly as possible.