Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the position regarding citizenship or long term residency in the case of persons (details supplied) in County Meath; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25588/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Officials in the Long Term Residency Section of my Department inform me that there is no record of any applications received from the persons referred to in the Deputy's Question.

An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the first person concerned was received in the Citizenship Division of my Department on 14 January 2009. 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 early 2008. 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.

An application for a certificate of naturalisation was received, from the second person mentioned, in the Citizenship Division of my Department on 27 February 2007. Officials in that section inform me that processing of the application is at an advanced stage and it is likely that the file will be forwarded to the me for a decision in the coming months. However, the Deputy should note that the address quoted in the question does not match the address recorded on file. If the applicant has changed address, she should notify the Citizenship Division as soon as possible.