Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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601. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when passports for the children of a person (details supplied) will issue; if any outstanding documentation is remaining; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13964/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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All applications are subject to the provisions of the Passports Act, 2008 (the Act), which provides, among other things, that a person must be an Irish citizen before a passport can be issued to him/her. In order to meet this legal requirement, each person must, therefore, demonstrate an entitlement to Irish citizenship in his/her application.

The applicants referred to were born in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Their entitlement to Irish citizenship is governed by the terms of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956 as amended (the 1956 Act). Section 6A 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 preceding his/her birth. Proofs of the lawful residence in the State are required to determine if a parent has the required three year residence. For non-EU parents, permissions to remain in the State on passports, and/or registration cards, as issued by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), are acceptable proofs of a parent’s lawful residence in the context of a passport application.

In this case, the applicants’ non-EU father submitted his passport and GNIB registration card with his children’s passport applications. These proofs show that his lawful residence dates from November 2013 to November 2018.

Given that this period postdates his children’s dates of birth, none of this residence can be reckoned for the purposes of Section 6A of the 1956 Act.

The Department is aware that applicant’s father had earlier residence in the State. However, this was authorised under permissions to remain in the State to study. It should be noted that the 2004 amendment of the 1956 Act, excludes such periods of residence for the purposes of Section 6A.

On the basis of the above, the children’s entitlement to Irish citizenship has not been demonstrated under Section 6A of the 1956 Act.

It would remain open to the father of the applicants to pursue his children’s entitlement to Irish citizenship by way of naturalization. To do this, he should contact the Department of Justice and Equality, who have responsibility for processing naturalization applications. In the event that their applications are successful, the children would be issued with certificates of naturalization, which can serve as evidence of their Irish citizenship in any future passport application.

In the meantime a formal decision on these applications will be taken on the basis of the documentation submitted and the Passport Service will be in touch with the applicants shortly.