merrion street

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As both participants and guests I am delighted to see you all here on this

very special occasion. I know that the granting of Irish citizenship to so

many of you here today who have come to our country from a foreign land is

a major event in your life. It is a time of celebration, a rite of

passage and a moment for all of you to cherish. It is also a solemn event

for this State to grant citizenship. It is particularly fitting that this

Citizenship Ceremony is taking place in this wonderful convention centre

with its iconic architecture. This appropriately reflects the importance

of this occasion for you as our newest citizens and for us as the host

nation in bestowing this honour on you.

As Minister for Justice and Equality, I have the legal obligation and duty

of deciding who should be awarded the privilege of citizenship. In doing

so, I have to carefully apply the citizenship laws enacted by our

Parliament and consider the individual circumstances of each person who

seeks Irish citizenship. It is a duty I take very seriously, as I am

acting on behalf of all Irish people in deciding who should be granted the

privilege of Irish citizenship. Careful consideration is given to each

citizenship application received and it is right that the granting of

citizenship is marked by a sense of occasion that serves to underscore its

importance to you, the person receiving it, and to us who, on behalf of the

people of Ireland, grant it to you.

You have come to our country and have chosen to live among us. Some of you

have been waiting a long time for this day to arrive. Today, we welcome you

to our nation as its newest citizens and we hope that you will continue to

contribute to our communities, to our neighbourhood and to our society. As

a people we have been enriched by your presence and, in making you citizens

of our ancient and proud land, we are acknowledging the contribution you

have already made.

Our ceremony today is greatly enhanced by the presence of Catherine

McGuinness, retired Judge of the High and the Supreme Court, former

President of the Law Reform Commission and a Patron of the Irish Refugee

Council. Catherine will lend great dignity to the proceedings in her role

as presiding officer and her presence signifies in a very public way the

importance and solemnity of the occasion. I want to thank you most

sincerely, Catherine, for taking on this task.

I would like to thank the No 1. Army Band conducted by Captain Fergal

Carroll, and the Colour Party under the command of Captain Gillian Martin.

I also want to thank the staff of my own department and in particular the

staff of the Citizenship Section in Tipperary who have been instrumental in

organizing today’s programme of ceremonies.

I referred earlier to the length of time that many of you here today will

have waited for your citizenship applications to be processed. When the

Government came into office 26 months ago, on 9th March 2011, there was an

enormous backlog of approximately 22,000 citizenship applications awaiting

decision. Approximately 17,000 of these had been waiting in a barely moving

queue for in excess of 6 months with an average waiting time in excess of

two years. Some, indeed, had waited 3 to 4 years.

Having made decisions on almost 53,000 applications since I took office,

including over 15,000 so far this year, I think I can safely say that the

steps that I initiated within my Department to deal with the backlog of

citizenship applications have been a huge success.

This citizenship ceremony, along with 2 others taking place here today,

together with the 66 other ceremonies which have taken place since we

introduced this universally welcomed initiative in June 2011, is a major

celebratory event in the citizenship process. Citizenship Ceremonies have

also been pivotal in addressing the backlog of citizenship applications.

Had we not put them in place, our District Courts - where you would have

been required to make the declaration you are making here today - would

have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of applicants. This of course

would also have meant that you would have had to endure even further delays

in becoming citizens.

On 24th of June 2011, the first Citizenship Ceremony ever held in this

State took place in the Dublin Castle Convention Centre. On that day, we

welcomed 73 new citizens to our national family. Today, in this state of

the art venue, we welcome 2,700. I think your presence here today

deserves a special round of applause.

The most visible sign of your becoming a Irish citizen today is a formal

legal document - your Certificate of Naturalisation. I have no doubt it

will take pride of place in many of your homes. The Certificate is, of

course, hugely valued by each of you individually but in a wider sense it

portrays, in a simple but powerful way, the unprecedented changes in the

demography of this State. The most recent census shows that 12% of our

national population or some 544,000 people are representative of 199 other

countries around the globe. Our small island home at the western edge of

Europe facing into the Atlantic ocean has truly become a country of many

cultures - inclusive and diverse – to the benefit of us all.

This ceremony on the award of citizenship marks in a very public way one of

the very potent and powerful manifestations of our independence as a

nation.

The history of this State is now your history and the narrative of your

life is now part of our history. For those of you granted citizenship

today your future is now interwoven with the future of this State, its

citizens across the globe and, in particular, all of us who live on this

island. For those of you granted citizenship today you are becoming

citizens of a republic, a constitutional democracy which recognises the

personal rights of each of you as individuals and which greatly values

inclusiveness, tolerance and diversity.

I wish to congratulate you, one and all, on becoming our newest Irish

Citizens – we welcome you to our national family.

I now formally introduce Judge Catherine McGuinness and call upon her to

administer the declaration of Fidelity, in which you publicly declare your

loyalty to our Nation and Fidelity to our State as well as an undertaking

to faithfully observe the laws of the State and respect its democratic

values.