Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 October 2007
308 Deputy Damien English asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason a person (details supplied) in County Meath is not permitted to obtain an Irish passport; and if this decision will be re-examined. [22691/07]
View answerThe Passport Office can only issue a passport to an Irish Citizen.
In this case, an application for an Irish passport was submitted on behalf of a child by his parents to the Passport Office in May, 2007. The applicant was born in Ireland in 2006. Under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 2004, persons born in the State after 1 January 2005, where neither parent is an Irish or British citizen or otherwise entitled to reside without restriction in the State or in Northern Ireland, may claim citizenship by birth in the State (and thereby establish eligibility for a passport) only where a parent has been lawfully resident in the State for 3 years of the 4 years preceding their birth. In all such cases, it is the practice of the Passport Office to seek evidence, in the form of official documentation, of lawful residence in the State by one or both parents.
The evidence provided in support of the application in question did not satisfy the residency requirement and as such the passport application could not be approved. My Department wrote to the applicant's parents and advised them of this decision on 5 June, 2007. The application has been re-examined in detail by the Passport Office. There is no change in the position conveyed in the letter of 5 June, 2007.
