Written Answers. - Passports for Investment Scheme.
Eoin Ryan
Ceist:
222
Mr. E. Ryan
asked the
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform
the circumstances surrounding the decision by the previous Administration to issue naturalisation to four additional applications under the investment based naturalisation scheme after the Government decision of 4 September 1996 which decided that no new applications should be accepted pending the introduction of specific legislation; the names of the companies who benefited from these four additional applications; the names of those who were subsequently naturalised; and the names of those who sought the naturalisation on behalf of the Irish companies and for those people providing the investment.
[16756/98]
The Government decided on 4 September 1996 that the scheme for investment-based naturalisation should be suspended pending the entry into force of a statutory scheme. It was also decided that applications in hand under the scheme could be continued.
On 11 March 1997, the previous Government decided that 19 applications on hand at 4 September 1996 were to be regarded as cases where commitments had been made, and that they should be processed to finality, while 50 other cases were to be left over until legislation was in place.
On 6 May 1997, despite the decision of 11 March, the previous Government decided that additional applications, four in all, should be accepted in respect of three companies. On 21 May, the previous Government approved the substitution of an investor in one of these cases, in circumstances where the original investor had withdrawn his application.
On 25 June 1997, the previous Government decided that a further application should be accepted in respect of a fourth company and approved the substitution of an application for investment in another company, again in circumstances where the original investor had withdrawn.
Four of the six applicants mentioned above have already been naturalised and, in the case of the other two, procedures have not been finalised. As I have stated in reply to several questions in the past, l do not intend to divulge the names of the investors or the companies involved for reasons of personal confidentiality and commercial sensitivity.
