Jim O'Keeffe
Ceist:107 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of naturalised Irish citizens who applied for and were granted passports for each of the years from 1988 to 1994. [20596/97]
Written Answers. - Passport Applications.
Information on numbers of passports issued to naturalised Irish citizens is readily available only for the period from 1 September, 1993 when the Passport Office became fully computerised to 31 December, 1994. The number of such passports issued in the period 1 September to 31 December, 1993 was 99; the number issued in the year 1994 was 439.
In order to ascertain the number of such passports issued from 1 January, 1998 to 31 August, 1993 and the negligible number of applications from naturalised Irish citizens from 1988 to 1994 which did not result in passports being issued, the
Passport Office would have to retrieve and check over a million files, some of which are in Embassies abroad. The Department of Foreign Affairs does not have the resources to carry out such a task.