Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 November 2018
162. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 142 of 26 September 2018 and 420 of 6 November 2018, if he will respond to issues raised in correspondence in relation to the INIS online appointment system for registrations (details supplied); the action he will take to address these problems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49712/18]
View answerAs outlined in responses to previous parliamentary questions, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department became aware in September of customers experiencing difficulties booking registration appointments. Some of these difficulties had arisen because third party agents had been able to secure multiple appointments through the use of automatic software.
A set of software fixes was introduced in mid-September to prevent this abuse of the system. As far as can be determined, this software update has been successful in preventing the block booking of appointments by third party agents. The system is being regularly monitored in this regard.
The period September to November is the busiest time for registrations with many student registrations in addition to the usual workload of the office. A number of measures have been taken to increase the capacity of the office, including the assignment of additional staff to the Registration Office, increased overtime and opening the office for registrations on most Saturdays and some Sundays. These measures are aimed at ensuring that as many appointments as possible are made available each day.
With regard to the Deputy's query regarding registration appointments for students in DCU, I am advised that INIS, in co-operation with the Irish Universities Association, has held a number of dedicated registration sessions for students of DCU and other third level colleges. Appointments for these dedicated registration sessions have been co-ordinated by the colleges' international student offices. INIS will continue to provide dedicated college registrations into December.
