Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1609. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the estimated number of staff that would be needed to deal with routine immigration and visa queries within a maximum of 60 days; the estimated cost of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41525/22]
View answerMy Department is committed to delivering high quality customer service to all of our customers, including members of the public and Oireachtas members. My officials aim to interact with our customers in a manner that is accessible, efficient, empathetic and fair at all times and in accordance with the commitments in my Department's Customer Service Charter.
The Customer Service Charter sets out the commitments and standards of service that customers can expect in their dealings with my Department and is published on our website at www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/Customer-Charter.
My officials endeavour to acknowledge all correspondence received within approximately five working days and to issue a reply within approximately 20 working days. Where it is not possible to issue a full response within 20 working days, my officials aim to issue an interim reply advising the correspondent of the delay and when a response is likely to be issued.
My Department processes tens of thousands of applications for immigration permissions, registration, citizenship and visas on an annual basis. There are over 800 staff currently assigned to the Immigration Service Delivery function of my Department, all of whom interact with customers in their day-to-day roles. However, as the Deputy will be aware, the numbers of staff assigned to individual business units can change to allow my Department to most effectively respond to new issues or to offer new services, such as the recent need to process temporary protection requests by persons fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Each business unit provides their own dedicated email facility where applicants can raise their individual queries. These are responded to as quickly as possible and, in the majority of cases, within the guidelines set down in the Customer Service Charter.
My Department's Registration Office is responsible for recording and renewing permission given to non-EEA nationals who intend to stay in Ireland for longer than 90 days. The Registration Office has a dedicated team who coordinate responses with relevant business units across my Department's Immigration Service Delivery function. My officials continually measure customer satisfaction and other key performance indicators, such as timeliness of response. The ambition is to resolve 80% of queries within 10 days and 100% of queries within 15 days.
In April 2021, the Registration Office launched the new Customer Service Helpdesk and to date the team has resolved over 160,000 customer queries. An immigration Customer Service Network has also been established to drive continuous improvement for customers.
Additionally, as the Deputy may be aware, my Department provides a dedicated email facility where Oireachtas members can send queries in relation to individual immigration applications including in relation to:
- Visa applications;
- Citizenship applications;
- Repatriation/deportation queries;
- EU Treaty Rights applications;
- Domestic Residence Permission applications; and
- General immigration related enquiries (for example, how does someone apply for a particular permission and where do they send their application to).
This email facility is monitored by a team of dedicated officials who are assigned to respond to queries in the most efficient and timely way possible. The business target is to respond to all queries within 10 working days. Currently, the majority of queries are answered within five working days.
