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Home Page > News > Immigrant Council of Ireland calls for reform of Irish citizenship process

Immigrant Council of Ireland calls for reform of Irish citizenship process

Influx of inquiries calls for a more modern system

KERRY O'SHEA,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, January 8, 2013, 8:14 AM

Updated Tuesday, January 8, 2013, 8:14 AM

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Photo shoot for the Immigrant Council of Ireland outside the houses of Irish Parliament

Photo by Google Images

Due to an influx of traffic in 2012, the Immigrant Council of Ireland is suggesting that the citizenship process in Ireland should be reformed.

RTE reports that the Immigrant Council of Ireland saw an increased amount of people looking for citizenship information, thus increasing the need for a more modern citizenship process.

In 2012, the Immigrant Council said that about two thirds of the 64,000 visitors to their website were first time visitors. Additionally, the Council responded to more than 5,200 phone inquiries in the past year with people from 145 countries contacting its helpline.

Among the most popular needs for Irish citizenship were students finishing their studies who wanted to stay longer on a work visa, as well as people looking to rejoin their families.

Denise Charlton, the Council's Chief Executive, said the figures underlined the urgent requirement for the introduction of a modern, efficient and transparent system to respond to the needs of people who were already calling Ireland home.

She called for reform of the system, saying that immigrants who were already contributing to Ireland were greatly concerned by the over reliance on discretionary decisions with a lack of clear guidelines and an independent appeals process.

Nster.com

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6 Comments

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merefalow | Jan 10, 2013, 10:18 AM EST

ireland you need a leader,not the lap dogs bought and paid for by the eu that have brought you to your financial ruin,and saturated you with foriegners,find one,or you as an individual nation will sink into the morass of europe,and everything that you were and are will disappear like tears in the rain.(YES I KNOW,I BORROWED THAT BIT,SOUNDS RIGHT THOUGH.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 10, 2013, 04:01 AM EST

I repeat my assertions for the hard of hearing. (i) 20% immigration into a state with 15% unemployment is 35% insanity! (ii) Immigration and multiculturalism are sanctified euphemisms for cheap labour. (iii) Immigration into Ireland is a middle-class agenda adversely affecting working-class people. (iv) Try getting a seat in any Dublin city centre library as a lifelong taxpayer, and you'll find yourself being jostled by dangerously ambitious part-time working foreign laguage students who haven't.

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NXS | Jan 09, 2013, 04:35 AM EST

it seems Ireland is not getting the immigrants it needs. I agree 100%. Ireland or indeed any country need immigrants but right kind of immigrants to fil lthe skill gap for that country to prosper.

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WoundedKnee | Jan 08, 2013, 03:59 PM EST

Bobby: Like you, I am not against Immigration. I have written on this site and elsewhere about Ireland's history of immigration, and it was a beneficial experience for the country. But five minutes in any neighborhood of Dublin or Cork, or any town in Ireland, will give visual proof of what I have been warning about for years. That's how Mass Immigration in Ireland differs from what went on before, and what happens now in other countries. If you go into the French countryside, or that of Spain, you don't see towns and villages with huge foreign populations. You do in Ireland. I think the battle is lost--Irish will not exist as a separate nationality in any meaningful sense of the world by the middle of this century. Most Irish people--and this is shown in opinion polls, it's not my empty claim--are against Mass Immigration. But sometimes it seems they're like the lobsters in the hot water--they aren't noticing what is going on all around them. And then of course you have the professional pressure groups, such as the Immigration Council outfit that was/is funded by an American "philantropist" (some philantropist, that wants to destroy a small nation). Note what that woman states above; her argument is, Ireland has so many immigrants, we need to speed the process up so that even more can come quickly.

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bobby | Jan 08, 2013, 09:58 AM EST

Woundedknee i was in Dublin last month, and i do agree the influx of foreign nationals into Ireland is growing so fast. I visited the Blanchardstown Shopping centre in the west Dublin suburbs. It was like the United Nations in one place. People from all over the world and not many people speaking english. It looks like Dublin will be like London very soon. Im not against immigration but it seems Ireland is not getting the immigrants it needs.

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WoundedKnee | Jan 08, 2013, 09:39 AM EST

Billionaire Chuck Feeney funded this group for years, don't know if he still does. Feeney wants to finish off Ireland as the homeland of the Irish. His plans are already well advanced.

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