Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 January 2026
742. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of Irish association applications for naturalisation that have received final decisions since the new guidelines issued in April 2025 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5914/26]
View answer745. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration his Departments progress to date on the processing times for persons who have Section 16 Citizenship applications via Irish association; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5987/26]
View answer746. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the measures undertaken by his Department to reduce the backlog of Section 16 citizenship applications via Irish association, in particular applicants who are waiting three to five years for a decision; and the total number of Section 16 applications completed and a decision reached for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5988/26]
View answer764. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration if Irish association applications for citizenship are being processed chronologically; if Irish association applications for citizenship from minors are receiving decisions before adult Irish association applicants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6393/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 742, 745, 746 and 764 together.
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).
I can inform the Deputy that it is not possible to provide statistics on the number of applications and decisions based on Section 16 'Irish Association' for the past four years. This would require the manual examination of thousands of cases. Such an examination would require a disproportionate amount of time to compile. 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.
Last 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 provide additional documentation if they wished.
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. 190 'Irish Association' decisions have issued since the new guidelines have been introduced of which 138 approvals and 52 were refusals.
Unfortunately, the requested information relating to minor and adult 'Irish Association' applications is not maintained in a way that allows my Department to separate the processing times of minors from adults. Applications made on behalf of minors are not treated as separate to standard adult’s applications and are processed as part of the normal overarching processing structures in Citizenship Division in chronological order. That said, minor applicants are not required to attend Citizenship Ceremonies and as such can receive their naturalisation certificates sooner.
