Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the position in relation to the application for naturalisation in the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 24; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24206/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, 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 June 2007.

Officials in that Section are currently processing applications received in late 2005 and have approximately 11,500 application on hand to be dealt with before that of the person concerned. 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 Governments obligations under the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, every effort is made to ensure that applications from persons with refugee status are dealt with as quickly as possible, having regard for the general volume of applications on hand.