All applications for a certificate of naturalisation are assessed individually in accordance with the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended.
Section 15 of the Act sets out the statutory conditions that must be fulfilled for a certificate of naturalisation to be granted. Section 16 of the Act gives discretion to waive the statutory conditions in certain circumstances, including where the applicant is of Irish descent or Irish associations (related through blood, affinity or adoption to a person who is or is entitled to be an Irish citizen).
Earlier this year my Department published guidelines for applications on the basis of Irish Associations under Section 16(1)(a) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956. The guidelines provide clarity to both applicants and decision-makers. They set out the factors that may be considered when deciding whether to waive the statutory conditions in certain circumstances, including where the applicant is of Irish descent or Irish associations.
The guidelines have been developed in the interests of fair and transparent procedures and comprehensive decision making. Details of the guidelines are available on my Department’s website at the following link: www.irishimmigration.ie/how-to-become-a-citizen/.
Following the publication of the new guidelines, my Department then wrote to over 1,500 people with ongoing Section 16 applications advising them of the recently published guidelines and afforded them an opportunity to them to provide additional documentation, should they wish.
I can advise the Deputy that a significant number of submissions relating to Section 16 'Irish Association' applications have been received, and that decisions on these applications have begun to issue. Applications had been on hold pending the publication of the guidelines.
I can inform the Deputy that it is not currently feasible to provide statistics on the current processing times and decisions based on Section 16 'Irish Association'. This would require the manual examination of a large number of files.
Following the introduction of the new Section 16 guidelines, arrangements to separately record such applications have now been put in place and will allow for the provision of better statistical data in the near future. My expectation is that once an appreciable number of decisions have been reached, my Department will be in a better position to provided indicative timeframes for processing.
A breakdown of Section 16 applications on hand is outlined in the below table.
|
Duration
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Number of applications
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Less than 12 months
|
116
|
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12 to less than 24 months
|
383
|
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24 to less than 36 months
|
315
|
|
36 months +
|
710
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