Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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There is currently no application pending in my Department for subsidiary protection or for leave to remain on humanitarian grounds in the case of the person whose details were supplied. If an application for asylum has been made by the person concerned the Deputy will of course be aware that it is not the practice to comment on asylum applications that are pending.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 339: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 118 of 5 March 2009, the status of an application by a person (details supplied) in County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27307/09]

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 received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in October 2008.

The average processing time from application to decision is now at 23 months. Officials in that Section are currently commencing further processing of applications received in early 2008. Applications are dealt with in chronological order as this is deemed to be the fairest to all applicants. However, I understand that the person concerned is married to an Irish national and every effort is made to ensure those applications are dealt with as quickly as possible.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 340: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the status of an application for a person (details supplied) in County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27310/09]

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 received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in August 2007.

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.