Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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1191. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the position regarding the Ombudsman's investigative report on passports for Irish-born children of non-EEA-EU-Swiss citizen; and the steps his Department have taken and will take following its publication. [33571/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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In July 2014 the Ombudsman published a report ‘Passports for Irish-born children of non–EEA parents’ following his investigation into complaints that some non-EEA workers had faced difficulties in obtaining passports for their children born in Ireland.

In the cases under investigation, the children were all born in Ireland after 1 January, 2005 to parents who were non-EU/EEA/Swiss nationals. This meant that their entitlement to Irish citizenship was subject to the 2004 amendment of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956 (the Act). The Act provides that at least one parent must be lawfully resident in the State for 3 of the 4 years preceding to and including the child’s date birth. In these cases, the evidence of the parents’ lawful residence in the State, which was submitted with the children’s passport applications, did not meet the statutory requirement as determined by the Department of Justice and Equality, the department with responsibility for citizenship policy. As their entitlement to Irish citizenship had been not demonstrated at the time of submission of the passport applications, the passports could not be issued to them in accordance with the provisions of the Passports Act, 2008.

In his report, the Ombudsman stated that while the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had been correctly applying the law in relation to the processing of this category of passport application, the administrative processes of the agencies involved in this policy area were likely to cause difficulties for members of the public that could amount to unfairness and unnecessary delay in individual cases. In his report only one finding against the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was made and that was to the effect that the Department’s contacts with the Department of Justice, whereby it seeks advice and direction are, in the absence of a protocol with agreed deadlines for responses, the cause of delays and uncertainty for passport applicants. The lack of such a protocol was found to be contrary to fair or sound administration.

Arising from this, the Ombudsman recommended in his report that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade should –

(i) obtain clarification on a number of outstanding issues relating to citizenship policy from the Department of Justice and Equality; and

(ii) set up a consultative framework with the department of Justice and Equality that would see the appointment of liaison officers in both Departments who will be responsible for dealing with cases/correspondence on citizenship and passport policy matters within a six week timeframe.

These recommendations were accepted by the Department last June.

On foot of the investigation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has now received clarification on a number of related citizenship policy matters from the Department of Justice and Equality. Additionally, a consultative process between the Departments with appointed liaison officers has now been established. The first meeting of liaison officers occurred on 28 August, 2014 and a second is scheduled over the coming weeks. It is intended to hold meetings every four to six weeks thereafter. These are in addition to the weekly contacts that are made to follow up on any outstanding issues and/or to discuss new issues that may require immediate attention of the Departments.