Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 316: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if a residency application made for a person (details supplied) in County Kildare will be assessed with regard to the criteria applied for persons under or over the age of 18 in view of the fact that the original application lodged on their behalf was prior to their turning 18 years old; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16880/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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Applications for certificates of naturalisation on behalf of the person referred to and her two siblings, who were all minor children at the time, were received in the Citizenship Section of my Department on 11 June 2004. The applications were lodged by their father, a naturalised citizen. Section 16 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended provides that I can exercise my absolute discretion to waive some or all of the statutory requirements for naturalisation in certain circumstances. One of these circumstances is where the application is made by a naturalised Irish citizen acting on behalf of their minor child or minor children. I have adopted a general policy that I will normally waive 2 years of the statutory residency requirement in cases where it is appropriate to consider applications under the provisions of Section 16.

The three minor children arrived into the State on 15 August 2003 and were only in the State for 11 months at the time of the applications. I decided to refuse the applications since they had not been resident in the State for 3 years at the time their father lodged the applications. Two of the three children are now over 18 years of age and will have to apply of naturalisation in their own right. Any such applications will be assessed against the statutory conditions in place at the time they apply. It is open to the children's father to apply on behalf of the third child before the child's eighteenth birthday on 15 February 2007.