Ireland and the United Kingdom share a long history and common interest in the effective operation of the Common Travel Area (CTA) and work together to prevent any abuses of the CTA.
There is also significant operational cooperation between the Gardaí, UK Border Force, UK policing services and the Police Service of Northern Ireland in relation to both immigration and criminal matters. This strong practical engagement and cooperation serves the mutual interests of both Ireland and the UK, and will continue.
The Government and I are acutely aware that changes to the UK’s immigration and asylum practices or laws can result in changes to the migratory flows between the UK and Ireland. We will closely monitor the changes proposed by the UK Government and if necessary, will respond to any changes made having considered them fully and discussed them with government colleagues.
I can further advise the Deputy that last month Cabinet agreed to introduce new policies and legislative changes to strengthen Ireland’s migration and asylum system to ensure it is rules-based, efficient and more aligned with EU Member States.
In these new policies I intend to make a number of changes to the rules on the granting of citizenship.
The former policy of allowing individuals with international protection status to apply for citizenship after a time period of three years will no longer apply. In general, the time a successful international protection applicant must wait to apply for citizenship has now been extended from 3 to 5 years in line with most other citizenship applications. This came into effect from 8 December this year.
I also propose to introduce additional eligibility criteria so that people seeking citizenship should be generally self-sufficient and should not owe a debt to the State for a defined period leading up to an application. Officials in my Department will work with the Attorney General’s Office and Department of Social Protection to develop this proposal.
It is also proposed to exclude residency accrual for naturalisation purposes for those who are residing in Ireland on temporary permissions including Temporary Protection under the Temporary Protection Directive. This is simply intended as a clarification of existing policy which ensures that temporary permissions do not accrue reckonable residence in Ireland.
Currently, there is an application fee of €175 and a certification fee of €950 following a positive decision. These fees will be reviewed in the context of ongoing efforts to modernise the system and the increased volume of applications being processed.
I will also clearly define what constitutes “good character”, which often relates to criminal behaviour. This will clarify the application process for applicants, and the decision-making process for officials.
