Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 177: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the status of the naturalisation application in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Wexford; when a decision will be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44095/08]

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 August 2006. Officials in that Section inform me that the application is at an advanced stage of processing and the file will be forwarded to me for a decision in due course.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 178: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his plans to address the backlog in relation to applications for naturalisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44110/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will appreciate that the granting of Irish Citizenship through naturalisation is a privilege and an honour and not an entitlement. Applications must be processed in a way which preserves the necessary checks and balances to ensure that it is not undervalued and is only given to persons who genuinely satisfy the necessary qualifying criteria. The procedures involved in the processing of applications have been developed and refined over a number of years and I am satisfied that they are absolutely necessary to maintain the good reputation of our citizens and integrity of the naturalisation process. Consequently, there is a limit to the reduction in the processing time that can be achieved.

Following the recent decentralisation of the Citizenship Section to Tipperary Town, substantial additional resources have been made available to the section in order to reduce backlogs and provide a better quality service to all applicants. This has had a positive impact on processing times with the average time to decision for applications for certificates of naturalisation now 23 months. It is expected that this will progressively improve over the coming year.