Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

If somebody came from Bosnia as a refugee and was granted refugee status and applied under this three year rubric for Irish citizenship and nationality, the first response from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is not to say that the situation in Bosnia has cleared up. Those people as a matter of practice get citizenship and we have not resorted to saying that as the emergency is over in Bosnia they should go back and make their lives there. We make strenuous efforts to integrate somebody to whom we accord refugee status into Irish society and do not then, normally speaking, unravel that process and say the time is up and send the person home. Theoretically, that could happen but as a matter of practice virtually every Bosnian refugee who opted for Irish citizenship received it. It would be very unusual for the State to inquire about the political situation in addressing whether that person should be granted Irish nationality.