Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I am conscious that she is answering on behalf of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, who cannot be here this morning. I wish to make a few points. First, I have no doubt about the robustness of the process. In fact, it can be an obstacle to a lot of people in an unduly bureaucratic way, but I recognise it is a process that needs to be followed. I heard what the Minister of State said about the Department examining possibilities. This is an issue I raised many years ago, when Deputy Stanton was Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality and I was a councillor. I met people in the Dún Laoghaire area, for example, who were becoming citizens and travelling in to the convention centre to do it. They would be much better off doing it in Dún Laoghaire town hall or wherever it might be. That is what I am talking about in terms of localisation. I am a little bit disappointed by the Minister of State's indication that there are no plans to amend the legislation to introduce a civic test as part of the application process. There may not be such a plan but is there be any plan to examine the possibility, the possible benefits that might come with such a process and look at implementing it in the future?