Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 January 2026
742. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of WTE staff, by job title working at the visa offices based in London, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, New Delhi and Ankara as of 12 January 2026; the number of those staff that are directly employed by his Department and those staff that are from local recruitment agencies respectively, in tabular form. [4181/26]
View answerI can advise the Deputy that there are currently seven overseas Visa Offices in addition to the Visa Office in Dublin. They are located in Abuja, Beijing, London, Moscow, Ankara, Abu Dhabi and New Delhi. In addition, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade process certain visa applications in Irish Embassies abroad under delegated sanction from my Department. I recently visited staff in our visa offices in New Delhi and Abu Dhabi to meet with our teams and see first-hand the work that they are doing.
Table 1 below details the number of staff in the London, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, New Delhi and Ankara Visa Offices as of 12 January 2026. The overseas Visa Offices are staffed by Visa Officers posted from my Department’s Visa Division and staff employed locally.
Table 1. Overseas Visa staff in London, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, New Delhi and Ankara as of 12 January 2026.
|
Office |
Posted |
Local |
Total |
|
Abu Dhabi |
4 |
6 |
10 |
|
Ankara |
5 |
4 |
9 |
|
Beijing |
5 |
8 |
13 |
|
London |
5 |
2 |
7 |
|
New Delhi |
5 |
19 |
24 |
|
Total |
24 |
39 |
63 |
Officials posted overseas from my Department’s Visa Division consist of one “Visa Office Manager” of Higher Executive Officer / Administrative Officer grade in each of the overseas offices who are supported by Visa Officers at Executive Officer and Clerical Officer grade and local staff in administrative roles. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are responsible for the recruitment of local staff.
In 2025, approximately 206,000 visa applications, of all types, were received by the Visa Division of my Department. This reflects an increase of 2% compared to 2024, with over 3,900 additional applications received. This follows a 21% increase in applications in 2024 compared to 2023. My officials are working to meet the increased level of demand, and over 8,700 additional visa decisions have issued in 2025, compared to 2024.
