Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 891: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will expedite an application for Irish citizenship by a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [19836/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to in the Deputy's Question was received in the Citizenship Section of my Department in June 2007.

Applications received in the beginning of 2005 are currently being processed and there are approximately 15,100 applications on hand to be dealt with before that of the applicant. Such applications are generally dealt with in chronological order as this is deemed to be the fairest to all applicants.

As no reason has been put forward by the Deputy which would justify this application being dealt with ahead of other applicants, it is likely that processing will commence in the latter half of 2009. I will inform the Deputy and the person concerned when I have made a decision on the application.