Pa Daly
Question:658. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Justice if she will address missing targeted citizenship applications by 57% for 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26015/21]
View answerTuesday, 18 May 2021
Questions (658)
Written answers
The Citizenship Division of the Immigration Service of my Department estimated that it would finalise in the region of 12,000 citizenship applications in 2020. However, the Deputy will appreciate that these figures were projected before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and before Citizenship Division became aware of the impact the pandemic would have on its processing capabilities.
The processing of citizenship applications in particular has been presented with a number of challenges over the past two years. In the first instance, a judicial review was taken in the High Court in 2019, by an applicant who was refused a certificate of naturalisation due to his absences from the State during the last year continuous prior to the date of his application. The outcome of this ruling – which was subsequently successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal – resulted in significant delays to the processing of citizenship applications in 2019 and in 2020. This has been seriously compounded by COVID-19 restrictions from March 2020, which has resulted in significant challenges to the delivery of normal services. The priority at all times is to balance operational outcomes with staff and public safety, complying fully with HSE and Government guidelines.
The Deputy will be aware that citizenship ceremonies have been temporarily suspended during the pandemic, in the interest of public safety.
On 18 January 2021, a temporary system that enables applicants to complete their naturalisation process by signing a statutory declaration of loyalty was opened. Approximately 2,014 people have received their Irish citizenship since then. A further 1,823 people have returned their signed statutory declarations and the Immigration Service of my Department will be sending them their certificates of naturalisation in the coming weeks.
We communicated with a further 1,000 people in April and 1,500 more will be communicated with by the end of June. At that point, we will have communicated with all those that were recorded, as at 30 December 2020, as having been in the system 24 months or more and 6,500 people, will have been given the opportunity to complete their Irish citizenship.
Those receiving a communication from my Department are being invited to complete the final steps required prior to the granting of a certificate of naturalisation.
In addition, additional staffing resources have been assigned to Citizenship Division to deal with the backlog of applications. Applications have continued to be accepted at all times during the pandemic, despite the operational challenges. Procedural initiatives recently introduced including moving the Garda vetting process from a paper based one to a fully digital platform, and accelerating the number of applications utilising on-line payments, have the potential to radically improve efficiency and reduce processing times.