I am informed by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that the retrieval and compilation of the information requested by the Deputy for each of the past nine years would necessitate a disproportionate use of time and resources which could not be justified in circumstances where the priority is to deal with the cases on hand. Information can, however, be provided on the number of persons born outside the island of Ireland who were approved for naturalisation for the years 2011 to 2018 inclusive as outlined in the following table:
Year
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
2018 to date
|
Number of non-Irish born applicants approved for naturalisation
|
12,800
|
22,000
|
27,000
|
16,700
|
10,700
|
9,300
|
7,200
|
3,400
|
It should be noted that adult applicants approved for naturalisation must subsequently attend a citizenship ceremony where they will be granted their certificate of naturalisation, accordingly the numbers approved in any given year will not correspond with the number who are issued naturalisation certificates in the same year.