Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 165: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the current and expected residency status and citizenship in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6912/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The person to whom the Deputy refers was granted permission to remain in the State in June 2002, under the arrangements then in place for the parents of Irish citizen children. The most recent permission to remain granted to the person concerned expired on 5 May 2008. I am informed that when the person presented at his local Immigration Office on 6 May 2008 for renewal of that permission, it was noted that his wife and child were not resident in the State. Renewal was therefore refused, and the person was advised to contact my Department. I am further informed that the person concerned again presented at his local Immigration Office on 14 January 2009 without having contacted my Department. As his family situation remained unchanged, he was again refused renewal of his permission to remain.

The person concerned is advised to write to my Department at: INIS, PO Box 10003, Dublin 2, regarding his current family circumstances. The matter will then be considered by officials of my Department.

I am also informed that an application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to in the Deputy's Question was received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in August 2008.

The average processing time from application to decision is now at 22 months. The Citizenship Division is currently commencing further processing of applications received in mid 2007. More complicated cases can at times take more than the current average while an element of straight forward cases are now being dealt with in less than that time scale.

There is a limit to the reduction in the processing time that can be achieved as applications for naturalisation must be processed in a way which preserves the necessary checks and balances to ensure that the status of citizenship is not undervalued and is only given to persons who genuinely satisfy the necessary qualifying criteria.