Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister of State's response although I will note a tone of disappointment. If the French can do it why can we not? More pertinently, I would like to point to the elephant in the room, an issue I have raised with the Minister of State's predecessors, namely the exorbitant cost of the citizenship process. Ireland has the second most expensive naturalisation process in the European Union. It is topped only by Austria. We talk about front-line workers in low-paid jobs who would love to apply for citizenship, who have been here for a considerable amount of time, who are wedded to the community and who have provided such service and duty over the last 15 months but they are not in a position to get the money together. Equally, post Brexit I mention the tens of thousands of British nationals who have been here, in some cases for up to 50 or 60 years or who just happen to have been born in the UK and to have moved here as young children. They are completely prohibited from taking their citizenship. They are Irish. We need to recognise that and to substantially look at the cost of naturalisation in this State.

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