Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Question 281: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will review the case of a person (details suppled) in County Roscommon. [18832/09]

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 2004.

On examination of the application submitted it was determined that the person concerned did not have five year's reckonable residence at 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 7 March, 2006.

A new application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person in question was received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in December 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 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.