Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 March 2023
216. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice the progress to date in the processing an application for travel documents in the case of a person (details supplied) who submitted an application for travel documents in March 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14125/23]
View answerI can advise the Deputy that the processing time for a travel document is currently 22 weeks, on receipt of a fully completed application. The person referred to in the Deputy's query was issued a travel document which is valid until the 4 February 2024. They made a subsequent application for their child, which was incomplete. As a result the application was returned. The completed application was received by the Travel Document unit of my Department on 10 November 2022.
In recent times the unit processing travel documents has experienced a very high volume of applications requiring processing and this has impacted on processing times. The unit are currently working on applications from the beginning of October and the application referred to above will be processed in the coming weeks.
Travel document booklets are printed by the Passport Office and this element of the process is not under the control of my Department.
Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility (inisoireachtasmail@justice.ie) which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.
