An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to in the Deputy's question was received in the Citizenship section of my Department on 22 September 2005.
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform may, in his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation provided certain statutory conditions are fulfilled. One of these conditions is that the applicant has had a period of one year's continuous residency in the State immediately before the date of the application and, during the eight years immediately preceding that period, has had a total residence in the State amounting to four years.
In the context of determining if an applicant meets the residence requirement for naturalisation, certain periods of residence in the State must be excluded. These include periods of residence in respect of which an applicant does not have permission to remain in the State, periods granted for the purposes of study and periods granted for the purposes of seeking recognition as a refugee within the meaning of the Refugee Act, 1996.
An examination of the file of the person concerned revealed that she did not have 5 years reckonable residency in the State at the time of application, nor did she have one years' continuous reckonable residency immediately prior to lodging her application She was informed of this determination on 10 October 2005
It is open to the applicant to lodge a new application if and when she is in a position to meet the statutory requirements applicable at the time.
Further information and the necessary application forms may be obtained from my Department's website (www.justice.ie) or by telephoning the Citizenship Section helpline on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 10:00 am to 12:30 pm at Lo-call 1890 551 500 or (01) 6167700.