Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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561. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for a general overview of the current average processing times for naturalisation applications; the specific measures being taken by the Department to address backlogs and delays, particularly for long-term residents with established family and professional ties in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56572/25]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I can assure the Deputy that my Department is taking measures to progress applications for citizenship as quickly as possible and has taken a significant number of steps to speed up the process for applicants.

These included introducing an online digital application, online payments, and the introduction of eVetting. 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 pleased to inform the Deputy that these changes are reducing processing times. The median processing time for a decision on an application in 2024 was 8 months. This is a significant decrease from the median processing time of 15 months in 2023 and 19 months in 2022.

Furthermore, my Department held 24 citizenship ceremonies last year, an increase from the 15 ceremonies held in 2023, and the 6 that were held in 2022. My Department has already held 19 ceremonies this year, with more planned for later in the year.

I expect that going forward, the majority of applicants will continue to receive a decision within one year, however, it is important to note that no two naturalisation applications are the same and some take longer than others to process.

Given the importance of citizenship, robust and comprehensive checks must take place on each application. Unfortunately some checks, such as international checks, can take a considerable amount of time and these are largely outside of the control of the Immigration Service.

There are no provisions to apply different criteria depending on a persons familial status, profession, or how long they have been resident in the state.