John Brassil
Question:349. Deputy John Brassil asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade why a person (details supplied) cannot be issued with an Irish passport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11404/16]
View answerTuesday, 24 May 2016
Questions (349)
Written answers
All passport applications are subject to the terms of the Passports Act, 2008, as amended. This provides a legal basis for the issue of passports. It broadly requires that:
- a person must be an Irish citizen and;
- his/her identity is proven.
From the details supplied, there is no record of an application from the person in question on the passport system. It is, therefore, open to her to submit a passport application. In doing so, she may wish to consider the following:
Citizenship
Any person, who was born outside the State, may qualify for Irish citizenship through an Irish-born parent. If this is the case, civil birth, marriage and possibly death certificates should be submitted with a passport application form to establish the family link to the Irish-born parent.
Citizenship entitlement can also be demonstrated through an Irish-born grandparent. This citizenship process is known as Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) and is administered by the Consular Section in this Department. FBR certificates are issued to those applicants who can successfully establish their family link to Irish-born grandparents. This certificate must be submitted with a passport application form to verify the person’s Irish citizenship.
It may be the case that the person does not qualify for any of the proceeding citizenship categories. In this situation and subject to the length of her residence in the State, she may be eligible to become a naturalised Irish citizen.
To do this, she will have to apply to the Department of Justice and Equality, which is responsible for citizenship matters, and obtain a certificate of naturalisation. This certificate would be acceptable evidence of her Irish citizenship in any future passport application. More information about naturalisation is available on www.inis.gov.ie.
Identity
In terms of identity, the proper Garda witnessing of the person’s application form and photographs along with the submission of her Public Service card will be sufficient to meet the Act’s identity requirements.
More information about passport entitlement is available on the Passport Service’s website – www.passport.ie.