Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Norris for raising this matter. I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Brian Lenihan, who is otherwise occupied.

The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended, provides that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform may, in his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation provided certain statutory conditions are fulfilled. These conditions are that the applicant must be of full age or by way of exception be a minor born in the State; be of good character; have had a period of one year's continuous residency in the State immediately before the date of the application and, during the eight years immediately preceding that period, have had a total residence in the State amounting to four years; intend in good faith to continue to reside in the State after naturalisation; and have made, either before a judge of the District Court in open court or in such a manner as the Minister, for special reasons, allows, a declaration in the prescribed manner of fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State.

In the context of naturalisation, certain periods of residence in the State are excluded. These include periods of residence in respect of which an applicant does not have permission to remain in the State, periods granted for the purpose of study and periods granted for the purpose of seeking recognition as a refugee within the meaning of the Refugee Act 1996.

The granting of Irish citizenship through naturalisation is an honour and applications must be processed in a way that preserves the necessary checks and balances to ensure it is not undervalued and is given only to persons who are suitably qualified. Upon receipt, each application is examined to determine if the statutory application is fully completed. It should be noted that approximately one third of all applications for naturalisation received are not completed correctly, necessitating the return of the forms and accompanying documentation to the applicants with an explanation of the problems involved. Valid applications are examined to determine if the applicant meets the statutory residency criteria set out in the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended. Passports and other documentation are examined in detail and inquiries with the Garda National Immigration Bureau may also be necessary.

Since this procedure was introduced on 1 April 2005, more than 1,500 applicants have been found to have had insufficient residency in the State for the purposes of naturalisation. All such applicants are informed of any shortfall in their residency and will be able to re-apply when they are in a position to satisfy the residency requirements of the aforementioned Act.

Applications for certificates of naturalisation from the three persons referred to by Senator Norris were received in the citizenship section of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform on 20 December 2006 and acknowledgements of said applications were issued to the applicants on 2 January 2007. The first named applicant, whom I will refer to as the "husband" entered the State on 5 September 2001 and registered with the immigration authorities in Wicklow where he was given the permission of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to remain in the State for two years. He renewed this permission in November 2003, allowing him to remain until August 2005. He further renewed the permission in September 2005 giving him permission to remain until August 2007. These various permissions were identified from stamps in his national passport. At the time of lodging his application for a certificate of naturalisation in December 2006, he had accumulated a period of 62 months reckonable residency and his application was therefore deemed eligible. The individual concerned was informed in May 2007 that his application was being placed in chronological order and it was likely that it would be processed in approximately 30 months.

The second named applicant, whom I shall refer to as the "daughter", similarly entered the State in September 2001. As she was 16 years of age at the time of entry, she was obliged to register with the Garda immigration authorities which she duly did. She was given the permission of the Minister to remain unconditionally in the State until June 2004. However, in August 2004 she was given a stamp 2, which is issued to non-nationals who are pursuing a course of study, which extended to June 2006.

As stated previously, periods of permission granted for the purposes of study are not recognised in the calculation of periods of residence in an application for naturalisation. In addition, the individual concerned did not have a period of one year's continuous residence in the State immediately before the date of her application as is required by legislation. In accordance with these statutory provisions the application was deemed ineligible and this decision was communicated to her on 30 May 2007. The individual was, however, invited to submit a new application when she is in a position to meet the statutory requirements of the Act.

The third named applicant, whom I shall refer to as the "wife", submitted her application at the same time as her husband and daughter. The documentation which she submitted with her application as evidence of her immigration history in the State indicated that her total reckonable residence in her application for a certificate of naturalisation amounted to 49 months, thereby rendering her 11 months short of the total requirement of 60 months.

This fact was communicated to her by the official who examined her case in May 2007. The lady in question wrote to the Department on 23 September 2007, providing further corroborative evidence from An Garda Síochána confirming that while for a period when she had no residency stamps on her passport as the passport had been stolen, she was in fact registered with the immigration authorities as being legally resident in the State for the period concerned. There was also a further deficit of two months legal residence but this shortfall was explained in that the individual moved from one county to another. There was subsequent confusion as to which Garda district should be responsible for her immigration registration. On foot of further corroborative evidence received on 23 September, officials in the citizenship section reviewed her application. They deemed that she did satisfy the statutory requirements pertaining to reckonable residency and have now re-instated her application alongside that of her husband. A letter will issue to her presently confirming this position.

Officials in the citizenship section of the Department are currently processing applications received at the beginning of 2005 and have approximately 11,200 cases to be processed before those of the individuals concerned. It is likely therefore that further processing of these applications will commence in the second half of 2009.

I hope I addressed the Senator's concerns about these individuals and have clearly demonstrated that correct procedures were applied at every stage of the process by departmental officials.