Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 56: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason for withdrawal of passport from a person (details supplied) in County Carlow; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31449/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Entitlement to Irish citizenship is governed by the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended (the Act). Section 6A of the Act provides that persons born in the State on or after 1 January, 2005, where neither parent is an Irish or a 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 the parent has been lawfully resident in the State for three of the four years preceding their birth. The person in question was born in the State on 27 October, 2005. At the time of this person's birth, her mother was a Dutch national. Section 6B(2) of the Act makes particular provision for parents from EU Member States whereby such nationals may make a declaration in a prescribed form concerning their residence in the island of Ireland within the four years immediately preceding the birth of their children. This declaration is supported by the submission of the parent's EU passport and by documentary evidence of that parent's residence in Ireland. That parent will then be regarded as having resided in the island of Ireland for the declared periods for the purposes of s6A of the Act, unless the contrary is proved.

The person in question was issued a passport in January, 2007. However, the Passport Service subsequently had cause to review the application for the issued passport and determined that the period of the mother's residence in Ireland was insufficient to entitle her daughter to Irish citizenship. Therefore, as the person concerned was not an Irish citizen, the mother was informed that the issue of a passport to her daughter was an error. In a replying letter from the mother's solicitor, dated 20 June, 2007, the Passport Service was advised that the mother had accepted that she did not have the required residence under the Act to demonstrate her daughter's entitlement to Irish citizenship. The Department replied on 22 June, 2007 and advised that as the child was not an Irish citizen, the issued passport would be revoked and invalidated. This was done on 24 July, 2007. A request to return the passport went unheeded until a further passport application on behalf of the person concerned was received recently by the Passport Service. The revoked passport was included with the application.

The current application provides no evidence that would demonstrate a change in regard to the entitlement of the person concerned to Irish citizenship. Accordingly, the Passport Service wrote to the parents on 15 June, 2012 indicating its intention to refuse a passport to their daughter under the terms of the Passports Act, 2008 and the grounds for this decision. They have been given a date of 16 July, 2012 to submit additional information in regard to this proposed decision. To date no reply has been received directly from them in this matter. If no reply is received by the deadline, the applicant will be refused a passport and her application will be cancelled.