application was refused because he could not submit a valid passport. He then applied for a
stateless person’s travel document but this application was also refused. Although Ireland does
not have a dedicated statelessness determination procedure, in April 2013 his solicitors submitted
an application to the Minister for Justice and Equality to make a declaration of statelessness.
Having received no response within three months his solicitors then issued court proceedings. In
response, in March 2014 the Minister for Justice and Equality issued a declaration of
statelessness, the first ever and one of only two such decision issued in Ireland by way of an ‘adhoc’ procedure currently no longer in operation.
Access to Citizenship
32. The ICI, the Institute and the ENS wish to highlight that Ireland is failing in its obligation under
Article 32 of the Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons to “facilitate the assimilation
and naturalisation of stateless persons” and to “expedite naturalization proceedings and to
reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings”. While, as set out above,
Section 16(1)(g) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 gives the Minister the power
to dispense with certain conditions of naturalisation in certain cases, including cases involving
a stateless person, this will not find practical application in a situation where statelessness is
not formally recognised.
33. Without formal recognition of their status as stateless, stateless persons wishing to apply for
naturalisation as Irish citizens will have to fulfil the generally applicable conditions for the
granting of citizenship which are set out in Section 15(1)(b) to (e) of the Irish Nationality and
Citizenship Act 1956, namely:
being of ‘good character’;
having had a period of one year's continuous residence in the State immediately before
the date of the application and, during the eight years immediately preceding that period,
having had a total residence in the State amounting to four years;
intending in good faith to continue to reside in the State after naturalisation; and
having, before a judge of the District Court in open court, in a citizenship ceremony or in
such manner as the Minister, for special reasons, allows—made a declaration, in the
prescribed manner, of fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State, and undertaken to
faithfully observe the laws of the State and to respect its democratic values.
34. However, stateless persons – even where they fulfil the conditions set out above – find
themselves in difficulty when completing the relevant application form which requires the
provision of information regarding an applicant’s current nationality.
Stateless Children and the Right to Acquire a Nationality
35. While there is a lack of reliable data on childhood statelessness in Ireland, with an increase in
inward migration to Ireland since the mid to late 1990s, it has become increasingly common.
The Institute, the ENS and the ICI are particularly concerned that, because of the lack of formal
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