Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 95: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding an application for naturalisation in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12109/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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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 Section of my Department in August 2004. On examination of the application it was determined that the person concerned did not meet the statutory requirements as set out in the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended. A letter informing the applicant of this was issued on 28 February 2006.

A new application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person in question was received in the Citizenship Section of my Department in May 2009. The application is currently being processed with a view to establishing whether the applicant meets the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation and will be submitted to me for decision as expeditiously as possible.

In that context, as I outlined in response to Parliamentary Question Number 69 of 7th April last, I can inform the Deputy that I have initiated steps within my Department to provide for speedier processing of applications to bring about a substantial reduction in the processing timescale. The new arrangements will be publicly announced once my Department is in a position to implement them.

The granting of Irish citizenship through naturalisation is a privilege and an honour which confers certain rights and entitlements not only within the State but also at European Union level and it is important that appropriate procedures are in place to preserve the integrity of the process.

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.