Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Question 90: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a passport will be expedited in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare [15412/11]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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A passport application for the person in question was submitted in December, 2008. In accordance with the provisions of the Passports Act, 2008, this Department must be satisfied that an applicant is an Irish citizen before issuing him with a passport. As the applicant was born in the State in September 2008, his entitlement to Irish citizenship is governed by Section 6A of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended (the 1956 Act). The 1956 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 matters of citizenship and immigration. In accordance with 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, 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 8 January, 2009 to explain its decision. She was also contacted by telephone that day by officials from the Passport Service. In this conversation she gave an undertaking to the Passport Service that she would contact the Garda National Immigration Bureau and obtain evidence from them that she had the required amount of residence in the State. Since then, no further evidence has been provided by the applicant's mother.

I regret therefore that, as the applicant's entitlement to Irish citizenship has not been demonstrated, this Department remains unable to issue a passport to the person in question at this time.

Question No. 91 answered with Question No. 82.