Vol. 542 No. 2
453 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact that applicants for renewal of visas have to queue for 12 hours at Harcourt Terrace; the steps he intends to take to ensure applicants for visas and renewals do not have to endure such a long queue or waiting time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23987/01]
It is undoubtedly the case that the Immigration Registration Office, Harcourt Square, has experienced unprecedented growth in demand for its services in recent years and that this in turn has led to delays for persons seeking to register or renew their permission to remain in the Dublin area. The number of persons registered at the office has grown from 12,803, in 1998, to 17,064 in 1999, 26,641 in 2000 and more than 40,000 during the first nine months of 2001. This increase in activity reflects the growth in the level of legal migration to the State and in particular the significant increase in the number of work permits issued to non-EEA nationals.
The Garda National Immigration Bureau, which was established following a Government decision of 9 May 2000, has as one of its key responsibilities the co-ordination of registration services throughout the State. Since its establishment it has made considerable progress towards responding to the demands now being placed upon the Immigration Registration Office. The number of civilian staff has been more than doubled from ten to 24 and the opening hours have been extended so that the office is now open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Thursday inclusive, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday. Furthermore, I understand from the Garda authorities that, in practice, the office regularly stays open until 9.30 p.m. in order to process applications for all persons who have attended the office on that day. Occasionally, if a person cannot be dealt with on the day of his or her attendance he or she will be given an appointment to call to the office on a subsequent Saturday or Sunday. In addition, the Garda National Immigration Bureau has recently introduced an IT system at the registration office to make the process of registration more efficient. The old paper based registration process has now been replaced by a fully computerised system whereby all data is recorded electronically and the customer is issued on the day of registration with a credit card size registration certificate incorporating a digitised photograph. This card replaces the old green book registration certificate which had to be prepared manually and posted to the person several weeks after their attendance at the office.
