Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 353: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when a decision on an application for naturalisation in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Dublin will be dealt with by his Department; the reason a previous application was refused; if the waiting time for processing of a subsequent naturalisation application is reduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17575/09]

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 first received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in November 2007. On examination of the application submitted it was determined that the person concerned did not have one year's continuous residency immediately preceding the date of application which is a statutory residency requirement as set out in the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended. The person in question was informed of this in a letter issued to him on 1 April, 2008. A new application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person in question was received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in July 2008.

Applications for certificates of naturalisation are dealt with in chronological order as this is deemed to be the fairest to all applicants. The average processing time from application to decision is now at 23 months. More complicated cases can at times take more than the current average while an element of straightforward cases are now being dealt with in less than that timescale. 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.