MINISTER FOR HEALTH Stephen Donnelly is to discuss fast-tracking citizenship for immigrant healthcare workers with Justice Minister Helen McEntee. 

Dr Mohsin Kamal, a paediatric doctor at Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin, and several other doctors spoke with Donnelly yesterday evening to discuss the arguments in favour of fast-tracking healthcare workers’ applications for Irish citizenship.

Donnelly told the doctors that he would speak with the Minister for Justice to prioritise applications for Irish citizenship from frontline healthcare workers.

The doctors also spoke with Donnelly about difficulties in accessing specialist training schemes for non-EU doctors, and how some courses like the Master of Surgery are prohibitively expensive: the course costs €4,000 for an EU candidate, and €15,000 non-EU candidate

Donnelly said that he would let the doctors know next week what the Justice Minister’s response is; Dr Kamal said that he was supportive of the case for fast-tracking their citizenship. 

At the moment, applications for Irish citizenship can be sent after five years of being resident in Ireland. When applications are sent, it should be processed within 6-12 months.

But some non-EU doctors have reported waiting years for their applications to be accepted.

“Most are waiting two years, but some wait for four years,” Dr Kamal told TheJournal.ie, who will apply for Irish citizenship in March.

“[Non-EU doctors] fill the criteria by paying taxes, working at the frontline, saving lives and don’t have criminal convictions. Can you please give something to cheer about rather than letting us having to get a visa stamp and pay €300 every six months?

Dr Kamal said that if the Government could extend that requirement for a visa stamp from every six months to every two years for healthcare workers, that would also be helpful. Donnelly said that he would also raise this point with the Justice Minister.

France and Canada are among the countries that have offered a fast-tracked or streamlined process to residency for doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers.

Labour Senator Ivana Bacik raised this issue in the Seanad recently, supporting the fast-tracking of Irish citizenship for frontline healthcare workers.

Those who have been waiting for a response to their citizenship applications beyond the usual 6-12 month timeframe tend not to speak up about it, Dr Kamal said.

“People are very afraid to talk about this issue because they are afraid they will come into the eyes of the people who will make that decision [on their citizenship application].

“Many people told me not to speak about the training [barriers for non-EU doctors]. I’m not afraid to talk about the truth. I suffer myself and I see other people suffering, and not talking about them means other people think everything is fine.”

A petition calling for frontline healthcare workers’ citizenship applications to be fast-tracked has gathered almost 3,000 signatures.