Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 37: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason a parent (details supplied) has not been allowed a passport for their son given that the child was born here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6293/11]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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A passport application for the child in question was made in July, 2010. This was done under the provisions of the Passports Act, 2008, which provides, that this Department must be satisfied that an applicant is an Irish citizen before issuing him/her a passport. As the child was born in the State in April 2010, his entitlement to Irish citizenship is governed by Section 6A of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended (the 1956 Act). This Act provides that a person, who is born in the State on or after 1 January, 2005 and does not have a parent who is either an Irish or British citizen or otherwise entitled to reside in the State or Northern Ireland without restriction, may claim citizenship by birth in the State (and thereby establish eligibility for a passport) only where a parent has been lawfully resident in the State for three of the four years preceding the birth of the child.

This Department assesses such applications in line with guidelines provided by the Department of Justice and Law Reform, which is responsible for citizenship and immigration. Under these guidelines, the proofs of lawful residence, which are accepted and considered in connection with passport applications, are immigration stamps in passports or the registration cards/books which are given to persons registering with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). These are official documents, which can be objectively verified and are relied on by the Department in the processing of passport applications.

In line with the requirements of the 1956 Act, the lawful residence in the State of the applicant's mother in the four year period preceding her son's date of birth was examined. Based on the evidence of immigration stamps in her passport, which were verified in writing by GNIB, the total amount of reckonable residence did not meet with the statutory requirement of three years. As the child's entitlement to Irish citizenship had not been demonstrated, the Department could not issue a passport to him.

The Department wrote to the applicant's mother on 1 December, 2010 to explain its decision and to give one month's notice of passport refusal unless further evidence was provided to the Department that would increase the amount of her reckonable residence to the legal requirement. I understand a copy of this correspondence was sent to you.

You replied, on behalf of the applicant, to the Department's letter on 22 December, 2010 and provided further documentation such as tax documents and salary details to show the applicant's mother presence in the State. Unfortunately, these documents could not be accepted as they do not fall within the strict category of proofs (i.e. immigration stamps and cards) of lawful residence that are acceptable in this type of passport application. As no other evidence was provided in your letter, the applicant's entitlement to Irish citizenship remained undemonstrated and thus no passport could issue.

This was explained by the Department in a letter to you, dated 30 December, 2010. This letter also advised that the Department of Justice and Law Reform is the Department responsible for citizenship and immigration matters and that any issues relating to lawful residence of the applicant's mother in the State is a matter for that Department. No action was taken at that stage in terms of passport refusal. Instead, the Department extended the deadline date for the proposed refusal to 18 February, 2011. This was done to give time to the applicant's mother to pursue, if she wished, the question of her residence and the implications that this has on her son's entitlement to Irish citizenship with the Department of Justice and Law Reform.

Since then, no further evidence has been provided by the applicant's mother. Accordingly, the passport was refused under the terms of the Passports Act, 2008. The Department wrote to the applicant's mother on 22 February, 2011 to inform her of this. A refund of the passport fee was subsequently made to the applicant's mother.