Mary Flaherty
Question:34 Miss Flaherty asked the Minister for Justice the current average time taken to process applications for naturalisation.
Written Answers. - Naturalisation Applications.
The time taken to process an application for naturalisation is the minimum time necessary to make inquiries which are necessary to ensure that the legal requirements for naturalisation are met. This is an involved process which, in normal circumstances, would be expected to extend over a period of months. Moreover, there is a backlog at present which will take at least a year to process. However, where there is good reason to believe that a particular application is urgent, it will be given priority. In these circumstances it is difficult to say what the average time taken to process an application is.
In order to be of assistance to the Deputy I asked my Department to compile an average time taken to consider the ten most recent cases where certificates issued. I am informed that the average time was fourteen months.