Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform further to Parliamentary Question 252 of 5 May 2010, the reason the application for a certificate of naturalisation from a person (details supplied) is still awaiting a decision 32 months after its submission to him; if he will specify the particular aspects of the matter that account for this delay while later applicants known to this person have received certificates of naturalisation; if a decision can be made without further delay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4047/11]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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A valid 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 May 2008.

The application is being processed in the normal way with a view to establishing whether the applicants meets the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation and will be submitted to me for decision in due course. While the average time from application to decision is 26 months, processing requirements and time taken to carry out necessary checks vary from case to case.

I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual Immigration cases may be made direct to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.