Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

All of this takes some time. This year and probably next year there will be a considerable spike in the number of applications for citizenship because people will qualify under the residency conditions. We will deal with that and we have a new computerised system in Tipperary which turns around cases much quicker than heretofore. However, there will be a delay. This is not something that one can just buy; it is a privilege and these decisions are not taken lightly. For the information of the House, in the nine months to the end of August 8,162 cases were dealt with and of those 5,250 were approved, 671 were refused and 2,241 were ineligible. That is an increase on previous years.

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