19,000 still waiting to receive Irish citizenship

APPROXIMATELY 19,000 people are still waiting to become naturalised Irish citizens, according to figures from the Department of Justice.

The news comes as the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it will be officially launching its global Certificate of Irish Heritage scheme within the next month, ahead of the second global Irish Economic Forum, to be held at Dublin Castle on October 7 and October 8.

Earlier this year the Irish Examiner revealed that 6,394 people had become Irish citizens in 2010, but the latest figures show that in the first eight months of this year an even greater number, 7,447 people, have been awarded Irish citizenship.

In the same period 489 people were refused, a slightly lower failure rate than in 2010 when 1,101 were refused — roughly one-in-seven applications.

In June Justice Minister Alan Shatter introduced changes to the Citizenship application processing regime in a bid to clear the backlog of cases, which stood at 22,000 in March.

Online application forms were introduced in a bid to speed up the process, with the Government hoping to reduce processing time to just six months in most cases.

However, a call to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration service phone number yesterday confirmed that the average processing time for a naturalisation process is still put at 26 months, something Mr Shatter described earlier this year as “entirely inappropriate”. In addition, a pilot citizenship ceremony took place in Dublin Castle in June and others are planned.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday that it intends to formally launch the Certificate of Irish heritage over the next month.

The idea, which aims to tap into the Irish diaspora globally, was first aired at the Farmleigh Economic Forum in 2009 and was put out to tender last year.

The scheme does not entitle anyone to citizenship. It is aimed at allowing people who believe they have Irish links to apply in the hope of encouraging them to play a role in Irish activities in their home country or to help in the funding of activities that celebrate connections with Ireland.