Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 103: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding naturalisation in respect of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31755/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to Parliamentary Question 129 on 6 October, 2011. The position remains as stated.

I am advised by the Citizenship Division of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) that a valid application for a certificate of naturalisation was received from the person referred to by the Deputy in November, 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.

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.

On the processing of naturalisation applications generally, the Deputy may be aware that I have introduced a series of measures within my Department to provide for speedier processing of citizenship applications to bring about a substantial reduction in the processing timescale and in particular to address the backlog of applications awaiting a decision.

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.