Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 299: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when a decision will be made on the application for citizenship made by a person (details supplied) in County Cork who reapplied on 27 July 2007 for citizenship having previously applied in 2003 when they were told that they had applied before time. [6897/08]

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 July 2007. Officials in that section are currently processing applications received in mid 2005 and have approximately 13,200 applications on hand to be dealt with before that of the person in question. These are generally dealt with in chronological order as this is deemed to be the fairest to all applicants.

However, I understand that the person concerned is a refugee. In accordance with the Government's obligations under the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, every effort is made to ensure that applications from persons with refugee status are dealt with as quickly as possible, having regard to the general volume of applications on hand. It is likely, therefore, that further processing of the application will commence later this year. I will inform the Deputy and the person concerned when I have reached a decision on the matter.