Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 June 2021
121. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Justice the number of citizenship applications currently being reviewed; the number of persons that have been granted citizenship to date in 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27632/21]
View answer123. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Justice the number of adults and children, respectively, waiting to receive a certificate of citizenship; when the next citizenship ceremony, virtual or otherwise, is planned; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27633/21]
View answer133. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Minister for Justice her views on the backlog of applications for Irish citizenship that have built up during the Covid-19 pandemic; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27646/21]
View answerThe issue of citizenship is very important to people, particularly post Brexit. I am aware that the Department of Justice has made very good progress this year with applications but that is set against a very considerable backlog. Substantial work remains to be done and I ask the Minister to outline the situation in the Department, including what is being done to address some of the procedural and communication difficulties that people are facing in the process.
I thank Deputy Carroll MacNeill for raising this very important matter. I propose to take questions Nos. 121, 123 and 133 together.
As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has continued to accept and process citizenship applications throughout the pandemic and at all levels of public health restrictions. Unfortunately, processing rates have been impacted by the necessary health and safety related restrictions imposed and we have been unable to hold in-person citizenship ceremonies since March 2020.
In addition to the Covid-19 disruption, a High Court case in 2019, which was subsequently successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal, also resulted in significant delays and the loss of over six months of processing time.
There are just over 24,600 applications on hand, almost 22,200 from adults and 2,400 from children. These applications are at various stages within the system, ranging from those who have just received citizenship to those where a decision has been made but it is not yet possible to issue an invitation to a ceremony. On 18 January 2021, my Department opened a temporary system that enables applicants to complete their naturalisation process by signing a statutory declaration of loyalty. Approximately 2,500 people have received their Irish citizenship since then by way of this process. A further 1,853 people have returned their signed statutory declarations and will receive their certificates of naturalisation in the coming weeks. By the end of this month, we will have communicated with 6,500 applicants, offering them the opportunity to complete their citizenship through the statutory declaration process.
To further address the volume of applications on hand, we are assigning additional staff to the citizenship team. A number of measures have been introduced to increase the digitisation of the process, including the introduction of eTax clearance and eVetting; rolling out online payments; revising the Department's website to make it more user-friendly for customers; and launching the first immigration chatbot, Tara, which has answered more than 12,000 customer queries in a user-friendly way since last November.
The end result of the digitisation process will be to free up staff resources to focus on processing applications in a timely and efficient manner, to improve services to our customers and to reduce waiting times. At the end of April, my Department hosted the first virtual citizenship celebration. We plan to hold another event next month to celebrate everyone who has received their citizenship since then. The next in-person ceremonies are provisionally scheduled to take place at the beginning of December, subject to the safety of all involved being assured.
What we are attempting to do here is not only resolve the current backlog that has arisen as the result of a court case and Covid-19 but also to put in place digitisation reform to ensure that the processes are more streamlined, easier and more effectively used for the future. We are taking this opportunity to ensure long-term reform for this area.
That would be welcome because people are worried about, for example, sending in their passport, particularly when the quality of communication, not from the Minister of State but from the Department, is sometimes opaque about what is being sought. I have complaints from people who say there is nobody to talk to, there is only a generic email address and they do not necessarily get a response. I have four cases of people who are married to Irish citizens and have Irish kids. One lady was married to an Irish citizen for 41 years and domiciled here for 50 years. These people are all in difficulties in trying to get citizenship. All of them are in the system for two years and in some cases for over two years. It is very difficult because of the implications on their lives. We put in representations on behalf of these people, including one gentleman who has been living full-time in Ireland for nearly ten years. I was told that his application was at an advanced stage two years into the application. Three months later the answer is unchanged. That may be so but people need better information than that, particularly when they are being asked for years and years of bank statements, current passports and everything else. They are putting their lives in the hands of the process and they are not getting the information back.
I sincerely thank the Minister of State for that substantive response. I am slightly enthused by it because every crisis presents an opportunity and the pandemic crisis presents us with an opportunity to address the major problems that exist within our naturalisation process, problems that landed at the doorsteps of so many citizens and wannabe citizens across the State. Deputy Carroll MacNeill eloquently talks about the families that are separated and put at risk. Is it feasible, with the major reforms and staffing changes announced by the Minister of State, to prioritise the many front-line workers who have dedicated themselves to our safety, security and public health over the last trying 15 months or so? Is there a possibility to prioritise them and like the French have done, include them in the first new citizenship ceremonies and in undertaking the process in due course?
I again thank the Deputies for raising an important issue around citizenship. As a Minister of State, I am a great believer in plain English. In everything we are doing I want to see that there is a simple and clear process, especially so that people can engage with the system and get those simple and clear answers when necessary. I will be visiting Burgh Quay in the afternoon and processes are being put in place there to have a simple one-stop application in place where people can apply for information on their processes. Sometimes information is spread out among a number of people within the Department and it can be hard to collate that back. We should also triage the urgent applications.
On front-line workers, I greatly appreciate the fantastic work and commitment that has been given by all of them, well above and beyond the call of duty. They work in a challenging environment and deal with vulnerable people on a daily basis and their exceptional commitment has been particularly clear throughout the pandemic. However, all applications for a certificate of naturalisation are processed and assessed individually in accordance with legislation. There are no provisions to apply different criteria depending on the category of employment of the applicant. All applicants are required to meet minimum periods of reckonable residence and standard checks are carried out as part of the overall process. There is no way within the system to pull out people's employment details either. Under the legislation and the systems in place, it is simply not possible to prioritise one category of applicant over another.
I accept the Minister of State's response although I will note a tone of disappointment. If the French can do it why can we not? More pertinently, I would like to point to the elephant in the room, an issue I have raised with the Minister of State's predecessors, namely the exorbitant cost of the citizenship process. Ireland has the second most expensive naturalisation process in the European Union. It is topped only by Austria. We talk about front-line workers in low-paid jobs who would love to apply for citizenship, who have been here for a considerable amount of time, who are wedded to the community and who have provided such service and duty over the past 15 months but they are not in a position to get the money together. Equally, post Brexit I mention the tens of thousands of British nationals who have been here, in some cases for up to 50 or 60 years or who just happen to have been born in the UK and to have moved here as young children. They are completely prohibited from taking their citizenship. They are Irish. We need to recognise that and to substantially look at the cost of naturalisation in this State.
Deputy Richmond raises the question of fast-track citizenship for those working on the front line. I understand the difficulty in prioritising one employment group over another within that process. There is another way of looking at it, as set out in a letter sent to the Government and to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, by 50 consultants from Beaumont Hospital on how front-line workers are being treated. It is about the stamp 4 system and how one can acquire stamp 4 status. This is for eligibility for training, which is so important for progressing to consultant status and being able to remain in the country. We have people who are coming top of their classes who are leaving Ireland because they cannot get the training to continue to progress their careers. The letter, which I will send to the Minister of State, outlines that clearly. One can get the stamp 4 status through marriage but not through working in the HSE. People are coming here, spending hundreds of thousands of euro on their training in our medical schools, from which our medical schools are benefiting. They are not then eligible for internship. I appreciate that is a matter for the Department of Health but because of our immigration system and because of the backlog in citizenship, as well as this stamp 4 issue, they are then not eligible to stay and progress their careers for us to benefit from their experience and expertise. I will forward the letter and I would be obliged if the Minister of State would look at it.
On the issue of costs, when the Department increased the costs around the citizenship process, one thing it found was that the quality of applications significantly increased and in turn the processing was far more effective and quicker. The costs reflect the cost of processing the applications. I know it impinges on people, however. I have dealt with a lot of British citizens in particular in my county of Wexford who have been living in Ireland for a long time and who want to take out Irish citizenship. I acknowledge the costs that are there but they are reflective of the overall costs.
On Deputy Carroll MacNeill's points, I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, on that matter.
