Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I want to raise the general issue of citizenship applications and to illustrate the difficulties by referring to a specific case. It is my information that at this stage there are more than 17,000 applications for citizenship awaiting decision within the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The citizenship section of that Department is overwhelmed by the number of applications with which it must deal. It is incapable of communicating on any reasonable basis with anyone who raises specific queries, including Members of this House. It is completely unable to provide a customer friendly service. Letters from Deputies, Senators, or members of the general public seeking a citizenship application go directly to the section, but then it all disappears into a black hole.

People's lives are being kept on hold while citizenship applications are languishing undecided in the Department for two, three and four years. An example of the difficulties confronting people is illustrated by the case of Mr. Steven Phillips. He came to Ireland in 2000. He has a work permit and has worked here lawfully ever since. He is employed by a leading firm of architects. Mr. Phillips has been involved in a variety of projects of great importance. He was involved in the layout of the conferences during the last European Union Presidency in 2004 and got a Garda clearance for that work. He was a project architect manager for the renovation and refurbishment of the third floor of the premises of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform at 94 Saint Stephen's Green. He was the project manager for the new offices of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism in Killarney. He was involved as project manager in the refit of the offices provided for the new Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. He also was one of two people from his firm who went to Saint Fintan's Cemetery in Sutton to carry out a survey of that cemetery, in order to ensure that proper facilities would be available at the funeral of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey for the dignitaries and others who were to attend, including the media.

Having lived and worked in Ireland on a number of important projects over five years, he applied for citizenship. He applied in December 2005 and he received a response in February 2006, which informed him that his application would be examined further at some time in 2008. In November 2006, he sought a long-term residence permission so that he would not have to renew his residence permission annually. He wrote to the Minister in desperation on 3 July 2007 regarding his application for citizenship and his long-term residence application. He asked whether someone could just deal with the matters, whether someone could respond to some queries he had made, and whether there was any remote chance that his citizenship application might be processed. He received an acknowledgement from the Department on 16 July 2007, but there has been silence since then.

In one of the letters of acknowledgement he received at an early stage, he was asked not to write too often to the Department, because it might get in the way of processing applications. It is now two and a quarter years since this man applied for citizenship. Based on the backlog of cases, there is a realistic possibility that his application may not be processed until 2009 or 2010. This is gross maladministration. It is an indication of a public service incapable of providing public service. The public service is treating with contempt applications for Irish citizenship made by foreign nationals lawfully working in this country. It is particularly ironic at a time when we in this State are urging members of the US Congress to grant long-term residence and citizenship to Irish illegals who have been working there for years. This is an example of an individual lawfully working in Ireland — incidentally, he married an Irish citizen a year ago — who would like to be granted Irish citizenship so that he could get on with his life. He and his wife would like to purchase a home for themselves and possibly start their own business.

There is a blockage in all of this. It is not just in the fact that the Department has not processed his citizenship application, but in the fact that he cannot even get any information from the Department. I appreciate the tolerance of the Ceann Comhairle, but I ask that this man's citizenship application be assessed. He already has a security clearance and is obviously self-supporting. He has been involved in jobs on behalf of the Government. I ask that he be granted the citizenship he is seeking. Pending that, someone should at the very least deal with his application for long-term residence, upon which a decision should have been made six months ago.

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