[For Information: Retired Justice Bryan McMahon presided over the 09:45 am
and 12:00 pm ceremonies, while the Attorney General Máire Whelan SC will be
presiding over the afternoon ceremonies of 2:15 pm and 4:15 pm]
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 Bryan McMahon,
one of our foremost lawyers, recently retired High Court Judge and a
greatly respected patron of the arts. Bryan will lend great dignity to the
proceedings in his role as presiding officer and his presence signifies in
a very public way the importance and solemnity of the occasion. I want to
thank you most sincerely, Bryan, for taking on this task.
I would like to thank the Army No. 1 Band conducted by Captain Declan
Whitston, and the Colour Party under the command of Captain Alan
Bermingham from the 2 Eastern Brigade.
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 would like to publicly
congratulate the Citizenship Section on receiving, just a few weeks ago,
one of the Taoiseach’s Public Service Excellence Awards of 2012 for the
work of the Section in the preceding 12 months and for their enthusiastic
embracing of the reforms that have taken place.
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 17 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 over 30,000 applications since I took office,
including almost 17,000 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 3 others taking place here today,
together with the 51 other ceremonies which have taken place since we
introduced this universally welcomed initiative in June of last year, 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 almost 4,000. I think your presence here today
deserves a special round of applause.
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 Bryan McMahon and call upon him 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.