Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 332: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason there is a two year wait for naturalisation applications to be processed; and if a more efficient process will be introduced to alleviate this waiting time. [7808/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will appreciate that the granting of Irish citizenship through naturalisation is an honour and applications must be processed in a way which preserves the necessary checks and balances to ensure that it is not undervalued and is given only to persons who satisfy the necessary qualifying criteria.

The average processing time for applications for certificates of naturalisation is currently 26 months and this is primarily due to the significant increase in the volume of applications received in recent years, highlighted by a 155% increase in applications in 2009 over 2008. Despite improvements in 2009 to citizenship forms, guidance notes and web-pages a significant volume of invalid or ineligible applications continue to be received and the processing of these applications takes valuable resources away from the processing of valid applications. To help reduce the levels of invalid and ineligible applications a number of enhancements will shortly be introduced on the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Services website at www.inis.gov.ie. These include an online residency checker, which allows prospective applicants to input their residency permission periods to check if they satisfy the statutory residency conditions, along with enhancements to the presentation of information on the site and changes to guides and forms.

I am assured by my officials that the procedures involved in processing an application are reviewed regularly to ensure that they are conducted as efficiently as possible. However, there is a limit to the reduction in the processing time that can be achieved whilst maintaining the integrity of the system.

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 333: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of applications awaiting naturalisation as of 31 December 2007, 2008 and 2009. [7809/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I regret that the information requested by the Deputy is not readily to hand. I will write to the Deputy as soon as it is available.