THE DEPARTMENT OF Justice spent €320 million last year, employing 1,340 people.

The department released their yearly report for 2013 today, showing that it handled 8% of all parliamentary questions last year.

That amounted to 4,161 questions. 3,665 of those were answered, while the rest were withdrawn or disallowed.

642 Freedom of Information requests were received and processed during 2013, with 74% seeking personal information.

The department handled 166,000 new visa, residence, citizenship and protection applications in 2013, with 97,000 new or renewed registrations of permission to remain in the State granted.

The top three nationalities applying for visas during 2013 were India (16%), Russia (15%), and China (11%).

Over 30,000 applications for citizenship were decided and 18 citizenship ceremonies were held during 2013 and processing times reduced to six months for standard applications.

At the end of 2013, 4,360 asylum seekers were residing in 34 direct provision centres.

In total, almost 2,300 people were deported, removed or transferred from the State.

In 2013, 1,285 applications for the importation of firearms and ammunition and 590 licence applications for the importation of various types of explosives were processed.

As of 31st of December 2013, there were 274 firearms dealers on the Minister’s Register of firearms dealers.

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