Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 February 2015
346. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Justice and Equality , further to Parliamentary Question No. 72 of 28 January 2015, if she will consider employing extra staff for the purposes of reducing waiting times for the family reunification visa, as opposed to using existing staff in her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5757/15]
View answerAs advised in my answer of Wednesday, 28th January, 2015, January, 2014, my predecessor, introduced a Policy Document on Non-EEA Family Reunification. Contained therein is a stated business target that visa applications to join Irish citizens should be dealt with within six months of receipt of application. A target of twelve months applies to other applications for family reunification. These processing times are in line with international norms for such applications. However, it must be made clear that these are business targets for the immigration service. Accordingly, they in no way constitute legal obligations.
These business targets reflect the detailed assessment that is required to be carried out in relation to applications for family reunification and are qualified by availability of resources. These targets are largely being met. Delays in achieving them are primarily related to processing more complex cases where the provision of additional documentation is requested by my officials, or where detailed assessments of family rights under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights are required, rather than to the availability of staff resources.
The stated targets are being largely met despite a 58% increase in the number of visa applications from persons wishing to join an Irish citizen spouse/partner from 2010 to 2014.
The management of resources is kept under constant review in my Department. As I stated in my previous reply, I must balance the needs of this specific area of my Department with the requirements of other areas.
In this regard, it must be borne in mind that 'join family' applications are not as time-bound as other forms of visa applications e.g. for the purpose of tourism, to study, to do business, to take up employment etc. and, therefore, the staff resources available for processing must be organised to deal, in a timely way, with these more time-bound applications while also progressing the more complex family reunification applications.
