Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 695: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of persons, with reference to the residence criteria for naturalisation applications, applying for citizenship by naturalisation in each year who have been told that a period of residence will not be included in calculating their entitlements by reason of a failure to renew annually their permission to remain here; the actual or estimated number of persons here who have been granted permission to remain on such a time-limited basis and who have neglected to apply for renewal of permission; the other action that is taken against persons who do not apply for renewal of permission, other than discounting their period of residence for naturalisation purposes; the action he will take in such cases; if discretion is available to him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14980/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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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.

Since 1 April 2005, the practices for processing applications for naturalisation have changed. When an application for naturalisation is received, it is examined immediately to determine if the applicant meets the statutory residency criteria. If the applicant does not meet the residency requirements, he or she will be informed immediately. Since the introduction of this procedure, more than 1,400 applicants who applied since that date have been found to be ineligible. All such applicants are informed of any shortfall in their residency and will be able to reapply when they have the required residency. The onus is on the individual who requires permission to remain in the State to keep this permission up to date at all times. If a person is required to have the permission of the Minister to remain in the State and he or she does not obtain or renew that permission as applicable, that person is staying in the State illegally and is in breach of Irish immigration law. He or she may ultimately be subject to deportation proceedings.

The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended, provides that I can waive some or all of the statutory requirements at my absolute discretion in certain circumstances, I consider it would be inappropriate to exercise my discretion in circumstances such as those outlined by the Deputy to facilitate persons who are in breach of immigration law.