Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 196: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress in the past 12 months of an application for naturalisation in the case of persons (details supplied) in Dublin 15; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13810/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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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. Some of these conditions are that the applicant must have had a period of one years continuous residency in the State immediately before the date of the application and, during the four years immediately preceding that period, have had a total residence in the State amounting to two years (residency requirement for applicants with Refugee status); intend in good faith to continue to reside in the State after naturalisation.

In the context of naturalisation, certain periods of residence in the State are excluded. These include: Periods of residence in respect of which an applicant does not have permission to remain in the State; periods granted for the purposes of study; periods granted for the purposes of seeking recognition as a refugee within the meaning of the Refugee Act 1966.

Applications for certificates of naturalisation from the persons referred to in the Deputy's question were received in the Citizenship section of my Department in January 2005, April 2007, September 2007 and a further application from the first person mentioned was received in October 2007. On each occasion, the persons concerned did not meet the statutory requirements mentioned above. Letters informing them of this were issued for each application received. It is open to the persons in question to lodge new applications if and when they satisfy the statutory requirements applicable at that time.