Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding citizenship in respect of a person (details supplied). [7104/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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A valid application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to in the Deputy's Question was received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in October 2009.

The application is currently being processed in the normal way with a view to establishing whether the applicant meets the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation and will be submitted to me for decision in due course. While the average time from application to decision is 25 months, processing requirements and time taken to carry out necessary checks vary from case to case.

I am unhappy with the length of time it takes to process citizenship applications. I have initiated steps within my Department to provide for a speedier processing of applications and to bring about a substantial reduction in the time scale. When the Department is in a position to implement these new arrangements an announcement will be made.

I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual Immigration cases may be made direct to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.