Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
1071. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Justice if new citizenship application processes have meant applications have been processed in non-chronological order; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37249/23]
View answerAs the Deputy will appreciate, my Department is focused on continually identifying ways of improving the naturalisation process for applicants and reducing any backlog as soon as possible. Through adding staff, but also through digitising and streamlining services, processing rates have increased by over 30 percent against pre-pandemic figures.
Earlier this year the Citizenship Division of my Department wrote to all applicants explaining that, as improvements are made to the processing system, there may seem to be variation in how files are processed i.e. how long it takes to register, process and grant decisions.
A key feature of the new process is that applications are registered within a matter of weeks of receipt rather than months. As such the benefit of this approach will be felt by new applications rather than older ones. The new process also allows for earlier referral for e-vetting. While new applicants have benefitted from this, at the same time in the region of 13,000 older applicants have also been sent the same new e-vetting link.
While new applicants are benefitting from these enhancements at an earlier stage in their application, the new processes will ultimately help reduce the time it takes to process all applications. For example, it is expected that the vast majority of applications received in 2022 will be naturalised is less time than the current average processing time of 19 months.
Citizenship Division’s current policy remains to process applications within sequence wherever possible, however, new processes must be tested to ensure they work. As part of this testing process a range of 2023 files were processed to conclusion earlier this year which has resulted in 1,036 applications from 2023 being naturalised. In the region of 13,000 applications have been received to date in 2023. For reference purposes, of the files received in 2021, 7,497 files have been naturalised to date along with 2,739 files from 2022.
As a result of the changes being implemented across Citizenship the vast majority of outstanding files from 2021 and 2022 (around 15,000 files) are now in the final stages of processing. These case are being prioritised for conclusion, however, every application is different and therefore some may take longer to process than others.
The changes to processing arrangements have also resulted in the finalisation of the vast majority of the backlog in Minor files and additional Citizenship Ceremonies to give applicants more opportunities to be naturalised.
