The Department of Justice has announced new arrangements for awarding Irish citizenship, as COVID-19 restrictions have brought a temporary halt to citizenship ceremonies.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said citizenship applicants would now need to sign an affidavit declaring loyalty to the state. Upon the return of a fully completed declaration, the department will issue a certificate of naturalisation.

The department says it is looking at other ways of celebrating the new citizens who will receive their certificates during COVID-19.

Virtual ceremony

Minister McEntee said she was introducing the new measures following a review of a pilot virtual citizenship ceremony which took place in July.

“While the virtual ceremony was a success, it is unfortunately not feasible to support the current demand with virtual ceremonies,” she said. “We want to ensure that eligible applicants receive their certificates as soon as possible.”

The department says virtual ceremonies would divert resources away from the processing of cases. There are currently 21,000 citizenship applications, with 3,000 waiting to take part in a ceremony.

Resources

Other new measures include the introduction of eTax-clearance and eVetting for citizenship applicants.

The move to eVetting is aimed at speeding up the application process and freeing up Garda resources that are currently being used as part of a manual vetting process.

The changes will come into effect after the minister signs a statutory instrument to the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956.