The application for naturalisation from the first named person, a spouse of an Irish citizen, has been granted.
Applications for certificates of naturalisation on behalf of the second and third persons referred to in the Deputy's Question were received in December 2008.
Applications for naturalisation are generally dealt with in chronological order as this is deemed to be the fairest to all applicants. The average processing time from application to decision is now at 23 months. More complicated cases can at times take more than the current average while an element of straight forward cases are now being dealt with in less than that time scale.
Applications on behalf of minors are dealt with by a separate unit in the Citizenship Division of my Department, because they generally require less processing than standard adult applications, it is usually possible to finalise them more quickly.
There is a limit to the reduction in the processing time that can be achieved as applications for naturalisation must be processed in a way which preserves the necessary checks and balances to ensure that the status of citizenship is not undervalued and is only given to persons who genuinely satisfy the necessary qualifying criteria.