Section 16 (1) of the Irish Nationality & Citizenship Act, 1956 (as amended) provides that the Minister for Justice & Equality (the "Minister") can, in their absolute discretion, grant an application for citizenship in certain cases, although the usual conditions for naturalization (or any of them) are not complied with.
These discretionary cases include where "...the applicant is of Irish descent or Irish associations..", where "Irish associations" is defined as "...he or she is related by blood, affinity, or adoption to...a person who is an Irish citizen or entitled to be an Irish citizen, or...he or she is related by blood, affinity or adoption to...a person who is deceased and who, at the time of his or her death, was an Irish citizen or entitled to be an Irish citizen".
In April 2025, Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) published indicative guidelines to provide "greater clarity to applicants regarding the rationale applied by the Minister in considering such applications and in making a decision". See the following link for the guidelines: LINK
ISD has also stated that all Irish Descent/Association applications that are pending a decision will be assessed according to these new guidelines and have written to relevant applicants providing them with an opportunity to submit additional documents. In terms of the number of these applications pending, the Minister stated in the Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann, on 11 June 2024, that at that time, there were 1,200 Irish Association cases pending determination, with an average processing time of 30 months plus.
Key points in these new guidelines include:
- Although being of Irish descent or Irish association is a required prerequisite to apply for Irish citizenship, it's not in itself a sufficient basis for waiving the usual conditions of naturalization.
- As a first step, an applicant must demonstrate that they are of Irish association or Irish descent, with reference to supporting documentation.
- As a second step, an applicant must identify what statutory naturalization conditions have not been met and "may be considered suitable for waiving".
- As a third step, the Minister will assess whether "the
applicant demonstrates sufficiently that their case warrants
waiving any of the statutory naturalisation conditions".
In doing so, the Minister will consider the following indicative
categories, where the guidelines include an "Indicative
Scoring Criteria" per category:
- Experiential connection to Ireland.
- Family connections to Ireland.
- Cultural connection to Ireland.
- Establishment in Ireland.
- Where an applicant is evaluated as having a "strong connection" in 2 or more of the above categories (also described as "50% of the total possible mark"), their citizenship application may be successful.
- Other relevant factors may be considered, depending on each applicant's case.
- The Minister exercises their absolute discretion in all cases.
See the following table which sets out the relevant "Indicative Scoring" criteria from the guidelines:
| Table 1: Indicative criteria to assess applications under section 16(1)(a) and 16(1)(b) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956 (as amended) | |
| A. Experiential connection | Scoring (50 Points) |
| Length of residence in Ireland | 5 points per year of legal residence (Max 25 points) |
| Applicant is currently resident in the State for tax purposes | 10 points |
| Evidence of frequent trips to Ireland in the past ten years (if not currently resident) | 3 points per trip (max 15) |
| B. Family Connection | Scoring (60 Points) |
| Family members (as defined in section 15C the Act1) are, or were at their time of death, Irish citizens ordinarily resident in Ireland. | 60 points |
| C. Cultural Connection | Scoring (60 Points) |
| Evidence of having contributed in a significant way to the Irish nation or Irish society generally, for example through exemplary voluntary work, engagement in artistic, sporting, academic, or intellectual endeavour, development of local communities, supporting Irish diaspora, promoting Ireland abroad. | 30 points |
| Being in possession of a professional/third-level qualification issued in Ireland (NFQ levels 6-10) | 10 points |
| Being in possession of a Junior Certificate (or equivalent) from Ireland | 10 points |
| Being in possession of a Leaving
Certificate (or equivalent) from Ireland |
10 points |
| D. Establishment in the State | Scoring (60 Points) |
| Holding a current Irish health, car or home insurance policy | 10 Points |
| Number of PRSI Contributions | 2 points for every 10 PRSI Contributions (max 20) |
| Being a member of a public/private pension fund based in Ireland | 20 points |
| Being in possession of a valid full Irish driving licence | 5 points |
| Holder of Irish bank account with evidence of recent transactions in Ireland | 5 points |
Footnote
1. Section 15C of the 1956 Act (as amended) defines a family member in relation to a person as (a) the spouse, civil partner or cohabitant of the person. (b) a child, step-child, son-in-law or daughter-in-law of the person, (c) a parent, step-parent, mother-in-law or father-in-law of the person, (d) a brother, sister, step-brother, step-sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, half-brother or half-sister of the person, or (f) an aunt, uncle, nephew or niece of the person.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
