Vol. 557 No. 1
413 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if people who have been granted refugee status can obtain Irish citizenship; the procedures involved; the number currently being considered for citizenship; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21635/02]
It is open to any non-national to apply for a certificate of naturalisation provided that the applicant fulfils the statutory conditions as set out in section 15 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956 as amended in 1986. These conditions are that an applicant must be of full age; be of good character; have had a period of one year's continuous residence in the State immediately before the date of the application and, during the eight years immediately preceding that period, have had a total residence in the State amounting to four years; intend in good faith to continue to reside in the State after naturalisation; and have made, either before a judge of the District Court in open court or in such a manner as the Minister, for special reasons allows, a declaration in the prescribed manner, of fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State.
Section 16 of the said Act empowers me to dispense with some or all or the statutory conditions in certain circumstances. One such circumstance is where the applicant "is a person who is a refugee within the meaning of the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of the 28th day of July, 1951, and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of the 31st day of January, 1967, or is a Stateless person within the meaning of the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of the 28th day of September 1954".
A person who has refugee status and who is married to a person who is an Irish citizen otherwise than by naturalisation or by honorary citizenship, may lodge a declaration accepting Irish citizenship as post-nuptial citizenship, provided that the marriage is subsisting at the date of lodgement of the declaration and the couple are living together as husband and wife and the spouse who is an Irish citizen submits an affidavit to that effect.
Records in my Department are not maintained in such a way that would readily disclose the current number of refugee applications on hand. It would involve a disproportionate use of staff resources to prepare such an analysis as each application is examined in chronological order and refugee applications are not separated from other applications.
