Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 25 Jan 1996

Vol. 460 No. 5

Written Answers. - Citizenship Applications.

Alan Shatter

Ceist:

68 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Justice the number of applications for Irish citizenship granted in each of the last five years; and the number of applications for citizenship refused in each of the last five years. [1646/96]

Alan Shatter

Ceist:

74 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Justice the number of applications for citizenship currently awaiting decision in her Department; the number of applications that were made in each of the years from 1991 to 1995 that are still awaiting decision; and the number of applications that were made in 1990 or earlier that are still awaiting decision. [1668/96]

Minister for Justice (Mrs. Owen)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 68 and 74 together. I have set out the information available in tabular form as follows:

Naturalisation

	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995
Number of applications	560	472	256	283	295
Number of Certificates issued	188	150	133	175	355

Post-Nuptial Citizenship (Irish residents only)

	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995
Number of declarations lodged	243	242	240	231	242
Number of declarations accepted	185	197	221	192	133

It should be noted that the number of certificates issued and declarations accepted do not necessarily refer to the number of applications/declarations received in that year.

In addition to the above, the following numbers of declarations from persons resident outside Ireland were accepted:

(These declarations are processed by the Department of Foreign Affairs, through their embassies and consulates); 1991, 488; 1992, 486; 1993, 640; 1994, 518; 1995, 415.

The number of applications for certificates of naturalisation and declarations of post-nuptial citizenship awaiting processing is approximately 500. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of those applications/ declarations in the form requested by the Deputy without a disproporationate expenditure of staff resources.