Vol. 526 No. 6
368 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress made in having the application for naturalisation by a person (details supplied) in County Sligo processed in view of the fact that he has met all the necessary qualification requirements; when a decision will be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27634/00]
Applications for certificates of naturalisation are generally dealt with in chronological order as this method is deemed to be the fairest to all applicants.
Due to the large volume of applications on hands at present, the processing times for naturalisation applications which existed earlier this year have lengthened. However, this matter is being addressed at present. Extra resources are currently being allocated by me to the immigration and citizenship division of my Department with a view to reducing the time involved in processing naturalisation applications. This will impact considerably on present delays. I would expect that processing of this application will be completed later next year.
As soon as full consideration has been given to this application, I will advise both the applicant and the Deputy of my decision.
