Irish passports among most difficult to get in EU
Wednesday July 07 2010
IRELAND is one of the hardest countries in Europe for foreign residents to get citizenship.
The number of people who got citizenship here fell by a third to just 3,250 in 2008, and is a tiny fraction of the rate across the rest of Europe, new figures from Eurostat show.
Ireland granted just six citizenships per 1,000 foreign residents -- compared with more than 50 per 1000 in Sweden and Portugal, and an average of 23 across the EU. Only the Czech Republic was less generous, bestowing citizenship on just three people per 1,000 foreign residents, while Luxembourg was on a par with Ireland.
Across Europe, some 696,000 people acquired citizenship of an EU state in 2008, down slightly on the 2007 level.
Most came from Africa (29pc), other European countries (22pc), Asia (19pc) and North and South America (17pc).
Natives of Morocco, Turkey, Ecuador, Algeria and Iraq were the most frequent recipients of citizenship in the EU, with many following strong historical links to their new homelands, such as Algerians and Moroccans to France, Turks to Germany and Ecuadoreans to Spain.
Delays
In Ireland people from Nigeria were the biggest group of new citizens, accounting for 319 new citizens -- or 10pc of the total -- followed by Pakistan with 196 new citizens (6pc) and India with 163 (5pc).
The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) said there were serious problems with cost, delays and lack of transparency in the naturalisation process in Ireland which is run by the Department of Justice.
In particular, there were problems with the requirement to be of "good character" with no guidelines as to what this meant.
The justice minister had absolute discretion over whether to grant an application or not and frequently refused applications on the grounds somebody had come to the 'adverse attention' of the gardai, even where they had never been charged or convicted of any offence, said ICI senior solicitor Catherine Cosgrave.
There were also delays of up to four years or more in processing applications.
Feedback
"Applications are also refused on the grounds of having been in receipt of social welfare payments including short periods of time following redundancy," said Ms Cosgrave.
The Department of Justice said that it expected the number of citizenships granted this year to rise to around 5,000, an increase of 28pc on 2008 levels. A number of refinements had also been introduced in the past year, including identity checking and giving feedback within a week of receipt of application.
And the average processing time had been reduced from 30 to 26 months.
The department was also reviewing the whole citizenship process and considering the introduction of language and integration tests -- but it stressed this was a privilege rather than an entitlement for would-be recipients.
- Aideen Sheehan
Irish Independent
