THIS month over 5,000 people received Irish Citizenship at the Convention Centre, Dublin.
Applicants from over 130 countries made a declaration of fidelity and loyalty to the State and became Irish citizens.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan was joined by Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services, Reform and Digitalisation Jack Chambers and Minister of State Niall Collins.
The Presiding Officer at the ceremonies was Judge Mary Irvine, who conferred the attendees with Irish Citizenship. She administered the Declaration of Fidelity to the Irish Nation and Loyalty to the State.
The new Irish citizens undertook to faithfully observe the laws of the State and to respect its democratic values.
Priscila Zimmermand and Messias Cunha, who have lived in Ireland for almost seven years, were conferred with Irish citizenship this monthIn just over two years the Citizenship Division of the department has gone from processing around 12,000 applications a year to processing over 20,000 applications in 2023, and nearly 31,000 in 2024.
Significant changes have been introduced in the Citizenship Division of the Department of Justice to speed up the application process for applicants, including the introduction of an online digital application, online payments, and eVetting.
As a result, processing times are now decreasing year on year. The length of time it takes to process an application has dropped from 15 months in 2023 to 8 months in 2024.
In last week’s applicants, in terms of nationality India was top with 914 new Irish citizens, the UK next with 614 and Brazil no. 3 with 531
Outside of Dublin, the county with the highest number of applicants at last week’s ceremony came from Cork with 585 people. Only six people from Co Fermanagh were conferred with citizenship in Dublin last week.