Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 April 2024
99. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Justice the status of an application for a naturalisation certificate in respect of a person (details supplied); if the certificate has issued to date; if not, the expected timeline for it to issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16922/24]
View answerI recognise that the delay in receiving a Naturalisation Certificate is frustrating for people and my Department is examining on how to speed up the delivery of Certificates for future Ceremonies to be held this year.
Any applicants that are yet to receive their certificate from the February Ceremony can be assured that they will receive their Certificate of Naturalisation via registered post in the coming weeks.
In a little over two years the Citizenship Division of my Department has gone from processing around 12,000 applications a year to processing over 20,000 applications. This 66% increase in processing has been achieved through digitising and streamlining processes.
Last year Citizenship Division more than doubled the number of Citizenship Ceremonies available to applicants with 15 held over the course of the year. These took place in the RDS, Dublin in March, in the INEC, Killarney in June, and in the Convention Centre in both October and December. This was a significant increase on 6 Citizenship Ceremonies held in 2022.
Finally, I can advise the Deputy that the Citizenship Division of my Department will continue to communicate regularly with all applicants to keep them informed on updates on processing times and arrangements.
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 at: IMoireachtasmail@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 Question process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in the cases where the response is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.
