Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 972: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the reason for the delay in the processing of an application for citizenship in respect of a person (details supplied ) in Dublin 11 and if he will agree to meet with them on this matter as was requested in recent correspondence with your office. [18240/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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A valid application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy was received in the Citizenship Division of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) in June 2008.

Further to information previously provided to the Deputy, the application is now at an advanced stage of processing and the person concerned will be informed of my decision on their application in due course.

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.