155. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to report on the delays in the processing of Irish residence permit renewals; the cause of the average processing time having been extended from three weeks to thirteen weeks; the measures he will put in place to bring this average waiting time back down; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40679/26]

The Registration Office of my Department is currently experiencing an exceptionally high demand for immigration permission renewal applications.

I understand that the extended wait times can be frustrating for applicants and I can assure the Deputy that my Department is exploring every avenue available to facilitate as many customers as possible and to increase processing capacity.

The Registration Office is already open seven days a week to facilitate customers, with further measures to reduce processing times currently being implemented. Additional staff have been assigned to this work and further assignments are being examined. I expect that this will begin to address the delays currently being experienced.

The Registration Office provide a live application processing date broken down by stamp category, which is updated every Monday, and is available at the following link: []

www.irishimmigration.ie/registering-your-immigration-permission/how-to-renew-your-current-permission/renewing-your-registration-permission-if-you-live-in-the-republic-of-ireland/#processing.

To ensure a fair and equitable service, renewals are generally processed in order of date submitted. Customers may submit their renewal applications up to 12 weeks prior to expiry of permission, to allow sufficient time for an application to be reached and processed prior to a current permission expiring.

The Registration Office has also issued a notice to employers regarding the legality of employing someone awaiting renewal. This notice can be found here: www.irishimmigration.ie/registering-your-immigration-permission/how-to-renew-your-current-permission/notice-to-employers/.

If a person has any queries relating to their immigration permission or renewal, they can contact the registration office using my Departments Customer Service Portal. The Customer Service Portal can be accessed at the following link: https://portal.irishimmigration.ie/en/.

Details on how to submit a query to the registration office can be found at the following link: www.irishimmigration.ie/registering-your-immigration-permission/submitting-registration-or-renewal-queries/.