Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 191: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will make arrangements whereby the spouse of an Irish national who applies for citizenship will be recognised as having fulfilled the period of residence requirement in respect of time while their Irish spouse was posted in an international public service organisation such as the UN, EU and so on. [18985/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Section 9 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 Act allows applications for naturalisation to be made by persons who are married to Irish citizens who are serving in the public service outside of Ireland. For the purpose of this Act, public service is defined as "employment in the service of the Government, whether or not in the civil service, or in the service of any public corporation or authority maintained wholly or partly out of public funds or in respect of which a Minister of State is responsible."

This provision is chiefly intended to cover persons working abroad in the service of the State as a direct employee, for example embassy staff, or in a State body. While any case would need to be looked at with regard to its circumstances, this provision would not appear to cover the cases referred to by the Deputy.

Expanding the categories of eligible service would require amending legislation and there are no immediate plans to introduce such a measure. However, it is intended to review current citizenship legislation generally and I will consider the issue raised by the Deputy as part of the process.