The person concerned was granted permission to remain in the State on 18 May, 2005, for an initial two year period, under the revised arrangements applicable to the non-EEA national parents of Irish born citizen children born in the State before 1 January, 2005, more commonly known as the IBC/05 Scheme. This permission was later renewed for a further three years, to 18 May, 2010. Subsequently the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) renewed his permission with this latest permission due to expire on 9 May, 2016.
The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended, provides that the Minister may, in his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation provided certain statutory conditions are fulfilled. One such condition is that I must be satisfied that the applicant is of good character.
An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person concerned was received in the Citizenship Division of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department and I decided to refuse the application. The person concerned was informed of this and the reasons for it in a letter issued on 13 September, 2013. It is open to any individual to lodge an application for citizenship if and when they are in a position to meet the prescribed statutory requirements.
Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to the INIS by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response from the INIS is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.