Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 203: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when a decision will be made on an application for naturalisation by a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [38424/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy was received in the citizenship section of my Department on 16 January 2004.

The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended, provides that the Minister may, in his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation provided certain statutory conditions are fulfilled, including where the applicant has 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, has had a total residence in the State amounting to four years.

In the context of qualifying residence for the purposes 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 purposes of study and periods granted for the purposes of seeking recognition as a refugee within the meaning of the Refugee Act, 1996. Generally speaking, immigration stamps in an applicant's passport are used to determine periods of permission to remain in the State.

I understand that the application of the person concerned was recently examined to determine if he had the required residence. It appears that a substantial period of his time in the State was for the purposes of study and, consequently, he does not satisfy the statutory requirements in this regard. Officials from the citizenship section will shortly be in touch with the applicant to further explain the situation in this regard.