Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 307: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of citizens broken down by reference to each quarter in the past 10 years, who have approached himself or the Government in circumstances where a title of nobility or of honour was proposed to be conferred on the citizen by another State; the number of such cases in which the prior approval of the Government under Article 40.2 of the Constitution was sought; the number of such cases in which the prior approval of the Government was sought and given; the number of such cases in which the prior approval of the Government was sought but not given; the number of cases, if known to the Government, in which prior approval was neither sought nor obtained and, in such cases, the respective numbers where a title of honour or nobility was conferred or not conferred on a citizen by another State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31105/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The vast majority of notifications on proposed awards to Irish citizens received in the Department of Foreign Affairs from foreign Governments relate to honorary awards which do not confer titles of nobility or honour. They are dealt with at official level in the absence of a Constitutional requirement that they be brought to the Government.

Since 1997, we are aware of three cases where titles of nobility or of honour were conferred on Irish citizens by another State, one in 2001 and two in 2005. In all three cases, we understand that the persons concerned were also citizens of the State conferring the awards. The prior approval of Government was sought and granted in two of these cases; in the third case, the approach to the Department was made two days after the award. This approach referred to an earlier request in 2005 in which the Department had been asked to approve and had agreed to an honorary award for the person concerned. In the event, the honorary award was changed to a substantive one. While taking account of this background, the Department also emphasised to the Government concerned the importance on all such occasions for the prior approval of the Government to be obtained.