Vol. 568 No. 1
662 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason there has been an inordinate delay in processing the naturalisation of persons (details supplied); the reason a new application has had to be submitted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15394/03]
Applications for certificates of naturalisation for the individual referred to in the Deputy's question and his wife were received in the citizenship section of my Department on 30 April 2003. The average processing time of applications for naturalisation is approximately 15 months at present and, consequently, the applications of the persons concerned should be finalised in the latter half of 2004.
Applications of this nature must be made on the appropriate statutory form. The statutory form prescribed changed on 30 November 2002. Both applications were made on the old forms. New forms were sent to both parties concerned some weeks ago and these have not yet been returned to my Department. The processing of the applications will not be delayed by virtue of new forms having to be completed. As soon as I have reached a decision on the matter, I will inform both the applicant and the Deputy of the outcome.
