I am not in a position by way of answer to a Parliamentary Question to indicate whether or not individual naturalisation cases will succeed. The general position in relation to a foreign national adult who is not the spouse of an Irish citizen nor a refugee or stateless person is as follows:
The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended, provides that the Minister may, in his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation provided certain statutory conditions are fulfilled. These are that the applicant must—
be of full age
be of good character
have had a period of one year's continuous residency in the State immediately before the date of application and, during the eight years immediately preceding that period, have had a total residence in the State amounting to four years
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
In the context of naturalisation, certain periods of residence in the State are excluded. These include—
periods of residence in respect of which an applicant does not have permission to remain in the State
periods granted for the purposes of study
periods granted for the purposes of seeking recognition as a refugee within the meaning of the Refugee Act, 1996.
Further information and application forms are available on the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Services website at http://www.inis.gov.ie.
It is open to the person concerned to lodge an application for a certificate of naturalisation with the Citizenship Division of my Department if and when they are in a position to meet the statutory requirements.
I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual Immigration cases may be made direct to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.