Vol. 532 No. 3
140 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the likely time scale for a decision on the application of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 1, and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7279/01]
An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy was received in my Department on 13 February 2001. Due to the various procedures involved in processing an application for a certificate of naturalisation in respect of a person of full age, together with the high number of applications being received, the average processing time at present is approximately two years.
Extra resources have recently been allocated to the citizenship area of my Department and further staff are due to be assigned shortly, at which stage the number of staff engaged full-time in the processing of citizenship applications will have doubled from nine to 18. These resources will impact considerably on the current processing time.
As soon as full consideration has been given to this application, I will advise both the applicant and the Deputy of my decision.
