Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 303: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the processing times for naturalisation applications and post-nuptial citizenship applications. [29020/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The average processing time for a certificate of naturalisation is approximately 24 months. The situation regarding post-nuptial citizenship is more complex as the statutory provisions providing for the process of post-nuptial citizenship were repealed in the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 2001, which came into effect on 30 November 2002. A transition provision contained in the Act enabled persons who married Irish citizens prior to 30 November 2002 to make a declaration on or before 29 November 2005. The final months of the transition period saw a substantial increase in the number of declarations received. In my own Department, this resulted in 1859 declarations from persons residing in Ireland being received during 2005 — a significant increase on previous years. Of this number, approximately 250 remain to be finalised.

Declarations of persons resident outside Ireland are processed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the processing time for those applications is therefore a matter for my colleague in that Department.