Vol. 442 No. 8
22 Mr. M. McDowell asked the Minister for Justice, in relation to the practice whereby foreign nationals who make substantial investments in Ireland can be considered for naturalisation, if she will give details of such investments made by persons (details supplied).
The persons in question were issued with certificates of naturalisation on 15 December 1992 by the Minister for Justice in accordance with the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Acts, 1956 and 1986.
Section 16 of the 1956 Act which was inserted by section 5 of the Act of 1986 provides that the Minister for Justice may in his-her absolute discretion grant a certificate of naturalisation where the applicant has Irish associations — even if the other conditions for naturalisation (or any of them) are not fulfilled.
It has been the policy and practice of successive Governments, from all sides of the House, to give favourable consideration to applications for naturalisation in the case of persons making or facilitating substantial investments in the State, where such investments have the aim of job creation or the preservation of jobs that might otherwise be lost. The consistent view of successive Governments has been that, by being prepared to make a substantial investment in jobs in this country by purchasing a residence and spending a reasonable amount of time in the country, applicants for naturalisation, assuming of course that there are no serious impediments to naturalisation on other grounds, should be deemed to have the "Irish associations" necessary for the grant of citizenship.
My understanding is that certain other countries follow a similar policy and I believe that it would generally be considered to be more in accordance with the intention of the Legislature that we should, as a matter of normal practice, grant applications in such cases rather than refuse them in the knowledge that the grant will secure investment and the refusal may see the investment move elsewhere.
