Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 155: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason the immigration section of his Department continues to insist that the applicant came to the adverse attention of An Garda Síochána in respect of motor offences when no offence was committed in the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 6; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23305/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to my answer to Parliamentary Question 459 on 9 October 2007.

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. One such condition is that the Minister must be satisfied that the applicant is of good character. In pursuance of this condition, the Citizenship section of my Department routinely request reports from An Garda Síochána on each applicant.

An application for a certificate of naturalisation was received in the Citizenship Section of my Department from the person referred to in the Deputy's Question in May 2004.

Checks with the Garda National Immigration Bureau revealed that the person in question has come to the adverse attention of the Gardaí with regard to certain road traffic offences. In the exercise of my absolute discretion, I decided to refuse the application received from the person in question. A copy of the submission with my decision annotated upon it was forwarded to the applicant on 11 December 2006.