Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 October 2022
328. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Justice when an application for naturalisation by a person (details supplied) will be processed; the reason that it is taking so long taking into account that the person has lived legally in Ireland for 40 years and is married to an Irish person; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49314/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe naturalisation application from the person referred to by the Deputy was acknowledged as having been received by Citizenship division on 23 May 2022, and continues to be processed by my Department, with a view to establishing whether the applicant meets the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation.
Citizenship Division have requested further documentation from the person concerned and they should provide this documentation as soon as possible, if they haven't already.
The granting of Irish citizenship through naturalisation is a privilege and an honour which confers certain rights and entitlements not only within the State but also at European Union level and it is important that appropriate procedures are in place to preserve the integrity of the process.
It is recognised that all applicants for citizenship would wish to have a decision on their application without delay. However, the nature of the naturalisation process is such that, for a broad range of reasons, some cases will take longer than others to process. In some instances, completing the necessary checks can take a considerable period of time.
Applications are processed in chronological order by date received. Due to the high volume of applications currently on hand, regrettably, average processing times can be up to 19 months.
However, my Department is taking a number of steps to speed up the processing of applications and a number of digitisation measures have been introduced to increase efficiency in the process, including eTax clearance, eVetting and online payments.
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: 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 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.
