Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 247: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when decisions will be made on applications for naturalisation by persons (details supplied) in County Mayo. [12312/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended, provides that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform may, at his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation provided certain statutory conditions are fulfilled. Those 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. The applicant must 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 purposes of study and periods granted for the purposes of seeking recognition as a refugee within the meaning of the Refugee Act 1996.

The persons referred to by the Deputy submitted applications for naturalisation to the citizenship section of my Department on 21 January 2004. These applications were examined recently and it was determined that the couple did not satisfy the statutory requirement of one year's continuous reckonable residence in the State immediately prior to applying for naturalisation. It appears that they did not renew their permission to remain in the State until January 2004, even though their previous permission had expired in May 2003. Officials in the citizenship section of my Department will write to the persons in question in this regard in the very near future.

In order for the couple to be eligible to apply for naturalisation at any time in the future, they must ensure that they have one year's continuous reckonable residence in the State immediately before they apply. For instance, if they wish to apply in April 2006, they must be able to show that they have appropriate permission to remain in the State for the period May 2005 to April 2006.