Vol. 541 No. 2
910 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the position in relation to the report of the review group which was established in April 1998 to examine arrangements for the granting of business permission to individuals to reside here and subsequent naturalisation applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21937/01]
In my reply to the Deputy's question on 29 March 2001, I informed him that on 20 April 1998, the Government abolished the investment based naturalisation scheme which had commenced in 1989. In doing so, it also decided that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform should initiate a review of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, to see how it might facilitate investment and, if in the course of that review information emerged which would warrant additional legislative measures, he should consider this.
To assist in conducting the review, I established a review group, comprising representatives of my Department, which chaired the group, the Departments of Finance, Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Foreign Affairs, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland together with two outside experts. I expect to be in a position to submit the report of the working group to Government in the coming weeks. Once the report has been considered by Government, I will arrange for its publication. The situation remains that the scheme stands abolished and I have no plans to reintroduce it.
