Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 October 2013
66. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the children of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare qualify for Irish passports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41739/13]
View answerThe Passports Act, 2008 provides, among other things, that only Irish citizens are entitled to be issued with Irish passports. Each application received by the Passport Service must, therefore, demonstrate that person’s entitlement to Irish citizenship before a passport can issue to him/her. The children in question were born in the State in 2008 and 2010, their entitlement to Irish citizenship is, therefore, subject to the terms of section 6A of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956 as amended (the Act). This provides that a person, born in the State on or after 1 January 2005, where neither parent is an Irish or British citizen or otherwise entitled to reside in the State or Northern Ireland without restriction at the time of that person’s birth, may claim citizenship by birth in the State (and thereby establish eligibility for an Irish passport) only where a parent has been lawfully resident in the State for three years of the four years preceding that person’s birth.
In line with guidelines provided by the Department of Justice, Equality and Defence, which is responsible for immigration and citizenship, the proofs of lawful residence of a non-EU parent, which are accepted and considered by this Department for the purposes of passport applications are immigration stamps in passports or the registration cards/books, which are given to persons registering with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). These are official documents which can be objectively verified by the Department.
Passport applications for the children were received by the Department in August 2012. Neither of these were finalized for passport issue on the grounds that the amount of their mother’s lawful residence was insufficient to demonstrate their entitlement to Irish citizenship. At the time these were processed, the evidence of the mother’s lawful residence, which were taken into account by the Department, were her registration card and correspondence from GNIB. (The latter detailed the permission that were issued to her.) However, towards the end of last year, the Supreme Court ruled that letters from the Department of Justice, Equality and Defence, which sanctioned a parent’s residence in the State, could be accepted as evidence of lawful residence from the date of the letter. This was an important ruling in that the period of residence between the date of the letter and the date of the first permission, issued by GNIB, was reckonable for the purposes of the Act.
In light of this, a full review of the submitted applications has been done. In the case of the younger sibling, I am pleased to inform you that the additional residence that arises from the Supreme Court ruling is sufficient to demonstrate this child’s entitlement to Irish citizenship and thereby a passport. Accordingly, the Passport Service will make contact with his parents to arrange the submission of a new application form and photographs for his passport.
Unfortunately, the position in regard to the older sibling is unchanged. It is, therefore, open to her parents to pursue the question of her citizenship through the naturalisation process with the Department of Justice, Equality and Defence. In the event that citizenship is granted to her, the evidence of her certificate of naturalisation will in this case be sufficient evidence of her Irish citizenship for her application for a passport.
