Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 February 2026
311. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration given his Department has stated it is processing citizenship applications via Irish association in chronological order, to clarify the date of such applications currently being processed for a decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8885/26]
View answerLast 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 or submissions if they wished. Following this, a significant number of submissions relating to Section 16 'Irish Association' applications have been received, and the processing of those applications commenced upon receipt of the first submission. Submissions have not yet been received from a significant number of applicants and as a result, it is the case that some applications, where additional submissions have been made, have been progressed to completion ahead of others that may have made their initial application at an earlier point. For that reason, it is not possible to indicate an exact date for applications currently being processed.
I wish also to advise the Deputy that while cases are registered and progressed in order of receipt, their progression to completion can be affected by a range of factors relating to individual circumstances, the complexity of applications, whether further information is required from the applicants and whether all required checks have been completed. Given the importance of citizenship, robust and comprehensive checks must take place on each application; unfortunately, some international checks can take a considerable amount of time and these are largely outside of the control of the Immigration Service.
