Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:300 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the estimated processing times for applications for Irish citizenship. [26214/04]
View answerWednesday, 27 October 2004
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Written answers
The current average processing time for applications for naturalisation and declarations of post-nuptial citizenship is 24 months and ten months, respectively. The lengthy processing time results from a significant increase the volume of applications being received over recent years. The following tables set out details of the numbers of applications and declaration received and certificates issued in the past five years.
|
Year |
New Applications |
Certificates Issued |
|
2000 |
1,293 |
1,018 |
|
2001 |
1,502 |
1,419 |
|
2002 |
1,728 |
1,550 |
|
2003 |
2,491 |
2,272 |
|
2004 (end of Aug.) |
1,757 |
1,622 |
|
Year |
New Applications |
Certificates Issued |
|
2000 |
1,004 |
125 |
|
2001 |
1,431 |
1,012 |
|
2002 |
3,574 |
1,332 |
|
2003 |
3,580 |
1,664 |
|
2004 (end of Sept.) |
3,138 |
1,117 |
There are 20 staff assigned to the citizenship section of my Department. In all, over 650 staff members are employed by my Department in the provision of services for or in respect of non-nationals. Unfortunately, it has been the case that more than 70% of those staff are engaged full time in activities associated with the actual processing of asylum claims or in the provision of support of asylum applicants. However, the major reduction in the numbers of asylum applications is now giving me an opportunity to re-focus those resources on areas of service provision for non-nationals which are under resourced at this point in time. The citizenship area is one of the areas which will benefit from that process.