Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 520: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views regarding a matter in respect of a person (details supplied). [10847/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Applications for certificates of naturalisation from the persons referred to in the Deputy's Question were received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in May 2008. The average processing time from application to decision is now at 23 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. Applications for certificates of naturalisation are dealt with in chronological order as this is deemed to be the fairest to all applicants. 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.