Vol. 545 No. 3
144 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when an application for naturalisation by a person (details supplied) in County Cork will be dealt with; the reason for the delay; and if the application can be cleared without further delay. [30303/01]
An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy was received in my Department on 20 April 2000. As I have informed the House on a number of occasions, most recently on 3 October last, I have assigned additional resources to the citizenship area of my Department with the result that the average processing time for naturalisation applications has been reduced from two and a half years at the start of the year to approximately 18 months. I understand that the application for naturalisation from the person referred to is due to be submitted to me for a decision very shortly and I expect to be in a position to inform the applicant and the Deputy of my decision before Christmas. The application from the spouse of the person in question will be dealt with simultaneously.
