Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 November 2022
560. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of appeals that the single person committee of inquiry for refusal of application of Irish citizenship on grounds of national security has processed since its establishment; and the number of successful appeals in tabular form. [57943/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Single Person Committee (SPC) process was established by My Department to aid in the consideration of naturalisation applications where concerns of a national security nature have been raised.
The Single Person Committee (SPC) examines these cases and reports to me with a recommendation to:
- Release the relevant information
- Partially release the information
- Not release the information
- Release the “gist” of the information (in line with the court recommendation that led to this process).
Following an operational review of the process, where appropriate, an intention to refuse letter is issued where national security concerns arise. It is outlined to the applicant the grounds for the intended refusal and the applicant is informed of the option of invoking the SPC process. The Terms of Reference of the Single Process Committee have been amended to reflect this change and will be posted to the Immigration Services website.
To date, the Single Process Committee has considered the following number of reports:
- 3 x applications referred to SPC (2 of which have been reviewed with a report submitted to me and 1 application is currently pending).
- 4 x applications were submitted to SPC but have been subsequently withdrawn.
