Written answers

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Passport Applications

Photo of Mary Lou McDonaldMary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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190. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason for the delay in issuing a passport to a person (details supplied) in Dublin 20. [2973/13]

Photo of Eamon GilmoreEamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The Passports Act, 2008 provides, among other things, that only Irish citizens are entitled to be issued with Irish passports. Each application received by the Passport Service must, therefore, demonstrate that person's entitlement to Irish citizenship before a passport can issue. The Passport Service must operate within the law on this as in all matters. The Department received an application from the parents of the child in question last August. As she was born in Dublin on 4 May 2012,her entitlement to Irish citizenship is subject to the terms of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended. The Act provides that a person, born in the State on or after 1 January 2005, where neither parent is an Irish or British citizen or otherwise entitled to reside in the State or Northern Ireland without restriction at the time of that person's birth, may claim citizenship by birth in the State (and thereby establish eligibility for an Irish passport) only where a parent has been lawfully resident in the State for three years of the four years preceding that person's birth.

Moreover, the Act makes particular provision for nationals of EU member states, who may make a declaration concerning their residence in the island of Ireland within the four years preceding their children's birth. In such cases, the EU national is regarded as having resided in the island of Ireland for the declared periods for the purposes of the Act, unless the contrary is proved. These declarations must be supported by documentary evidence (e.g. tax documents, bank statements, social welfare benefit payments, work permits, rent leases etc) to verify actual residence in the State.

In this case, the applicant's parents are Romanian citizens. Romania entered the EU on 1 January, 2007. While parents from that country (and Bulgaria) are equal to other EU nationals in terms of free movement and residence, there were restrictions in terms of access to the labour market.

At the time of application last August, the Department had undertaken a review of the kind of evidence, such as work permits, that may be required to establish lawful and reckonable residence for Romanian and Bulgarian parents. The Department of Justice and Equality, which is the Department responsible for immigration and citizenship, provided detailed advice on this last November. This enabled the Passport Service to finalise last month guidelines in this area.

Work has been ongoing since then to clear the small number of applications which were delayed as a result of this review. This person's application was among them. The Passport Service is in ongoing discussion with the applicant's parents regarding the evidence required to determine that child's citizenship.

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