Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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144. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to intervene to assist to resolve a person's situation (details supplied). [40365/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The granting of Irish citizenship through naturalisation is governed by the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended. All applications for a certificate of naturalisation are processed and assessed individually in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

It is open to anyone to make an application for citizenship once they meet the criteria as set out in the 1956 Act, as amended. Only once an application is received, can a determination on whether the applicant satisfies the statutory criteria for naturalisation be made.

Applicants are required to have 5 years reckonable residence in the State prior to making an application, except for spouses of Irish nationals and people granted International Protection where the requirement is 3 years. In all cases, the final 12 months must be continuous residence in the State with up to 70 days allowed to facilitate foreign travel for business family or holiday purposes.

A current in-date and valid passport is regarded, internationally, as a primary identifier and is a requirement for any application for naturalisation. It is recognised that there are circumstances whereby an applicant may not have access to a passport.

In such cases, an affidavit may be submitted, outlining the reasons a passport cannot be obtained and detailing the previous efforts made to secure a passport. However, it is entirely at the discretion of the Citizenship division of my Department whether such an affidavit can be accepted and enable the application to progress.

The Citizenship Division of my Department have taken a significant number of steps to speed up the Naturalisation process for applicants, including introducing an online digital application, online payments, and the introduction of eVetting.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that these changes are significantly reducing processing times. I expect that going forward the vast majority of applicants will receive a decision within one year.

In just over two years the Citizenship Division of my Department has gone from processing around 12,000 applications a year to processing over 20,000 applications in 2023 and has already made more than 24,000 decisions to date in 2024. Last year, Citizenship Division more than doubled the number of ceremonies available to applicants with 15 held over the course of 2023. This was a significant increase on 6 Citizenship Ceremonies held in 2022. To date in 2024, my Department has hosted 17 ceremonies with over 14,000 attendees, with further ceremonies planned for later in the year.

Further detailed information on how to apply for naturalisation is available on my Department's Irish Immigration website at: www.irishimmigration.ie/how-to-become-a-citizen/.