Written answers

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Passport Applications

8:00 pm

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 11: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the position regarding an application for an Irish passport in the case of the child of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 15; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31853/11]

Photo of Eamon GilmoreEamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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A passport application for the daughter of the person in question was submitted to the Passport Service on 1 June, 2011. In accordance with the provisions of the Passports Act, 2008, this Department must be satisfied that an applicant is an Irish citizen before issuing her with a passport. As the applicant was born in the State in May, 2011 her entitlement to Irish citizenship is governed by Section 6A of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended (the Act). The 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 Equality, 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. Letters from GNIB which outline the various permissions to stay in the State that are issued by them, are also taken into account. 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 Act, the lawful residence in the State of the applicant's mother in the four year period preceding her daughter's date of birth was examined. As a result of this, the Department wrote to the person in question on 23 June and 20 July, 2011 to inform her that from the submitted evidence, the total amount of her reckonable residence did not meet with the statutory requirement of three years and that as her child's entitlement to Irish citizenship had not been demonstrated, the Department could not issue a passport to her.

However, solicitors representing the applicant's parents wrote to the Department on 28 July, 2011 and presented additional evidence of the mother's reckonable residence in Ireland. This evidence was in the form of a letter, dated 24 March, 2009, from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform which granted permission to stay in the State for three years from the date of the letter. The effect of accepting this letter as evidence of reckonable residence for the purposes of the Act would increase the amount of reckonable residence above the statutory requirement thereby demonstrating the applicant's entitlement to Irish citizenship and a passport.

Legal advice from the Attorney General's Office has been obtained. Officials in the Passport Service are presently discussing this advice with the Department of Justice and Equality. I have asked for this case to be given highest priority with a view to finalising this matter in the next two weeks. I will revert to you directly at that time with the outcome of these consultations.

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