Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 September 2004
192 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the position in relation to a citizenship application for a person (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23026/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraAn application for naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy was received in the citizenship section of my Department in June 2003. The average processing time for an application for naturalisation is currently 24 months. Consequently, it is anticipated that the application should be finalised around June 2005.
As I have previously stated there are over 650 staff members employed by my Department in the provision of services for or in respect of non-nationals. Unfortunately, it has been the case that more than 70% of those staff are engaged full time in activities associated with the actual processing of asylum claims or in the provision of support for asylum applicants. However, the major reduction in the numbers of asylum applicants is now giving me an opportunity to re-focus those resources on areas of service provision for non-nationals which are under-resourced at this point in time. The citizenship area is one of the areas which will benefit from that process.
