Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 February 2014
44. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if and when a passport will issue in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Meath; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7109/14]
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 person in question was born in Dublin in 2006. His entitlement to Irish citizenship is subject to section 6A of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956 as amended (the Act). The Act 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.
Two applications for a passport have been made to the Department for this person. The first of these was in 2006 and the most recent in 2012. However, neither application could be finalised to passport issue because the applicant's entitlement to Irish citizenship was not demonstrated. The Department wrote to the applicant's parents on three occasions to inform them of this and to advise them of the requirements, which were needed to finalise these applications to passport issue. There is no record of any reply from the parents in this matter.
It remains open to the parents to submit another application for a passport for their child. However, such an application must address the identified failings of the previous applications. In this regard the following advice is offered:
(a) evidence of either parent's lawful residence is required in respect of the four year period 22 March, 2002 to 22 March, 2006 (the latter being this person's date of birth);
(b) The evidence, which is acceptable to the Department in the context of a passport application, is permissions to remain in the State, which are endorsed on the parents' passports and/or their registration cards. Both items would have been issued by the Garda National Immigration Bureau;
(c) The amount of reckonable lawful residence must amount to three years otherwise it does meet with the requirement of section 6A of the Act;
(d) If this person does not qualify under section 6A of the Act, the parents may consider making an application to the Department of Justice, Equality and Defence for their child to become a naturalised citizen. In the event that such an application was successful, a Certificate of Naturalisation should be submitted in any future passport application as evidence of this person's Irish citizenship. The Department should then be in a position to issue a passport to this person.
