Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 December 2014
121. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the requirements in respect of eligibility to obtain naturalisation in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46655/14]
View answerSection 15 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended, provides that the Minister may, in her absolute discretion, grant a certificate of naturalisation provided certain statutory conditions are fulfilled. One such condition is that the applicant must have had a period of one year's continuous residency in the State immediately before the date of application and, during the eight years immediately preceding that period, have had a total residence in the State amounting to four years. Periods for which the applicant did not have the permission of the Minister for Justice and Equality to reside in the State are not reckonable for the purposes of satisfying the residency conditions for naturalisation.
An application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person referred to by the Deputy was received in the Citizenship Division of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) on 17 September, 2014. On examination of the application submitted it was determined that the person in question did not meet the statutory residency requirements as set out in the Act and referred to above. The person concerned was informed of this by letter on 12 November, 2014 along with a calculation of her periods of reckonable residence.
It is open to the individual referred to by the Deputy to lodge a further application for citizenship if and when she is in a position to meet the prescribed statutory requirements. The on-line Naturalisation Residency Calculator available on the INIS web-site at www.inis.gov.ie can be used as a guide to whether an individual satisfies the naturalisation residency conditions and, if not, give an indication of how long they should wait before making an application.
The Deputy may wish to note that queries on the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been established specifically 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 INIS is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.
