The practice of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal registry is to record an applicant’s nationality, but this is exclusively based on IPO’s previously designated nationality. Therefore, the IPO’s original designation of nationality is maintained in the Tribunal administration even if a finding of statelessness is made during the substantive consideration of an appeal by the Tribunal or during the substantive process at the IPO. This means that an incorrect designation of an applicant’s nationality at the outset at the IPO stage appears to stay with them throughout the protection process. According to the Tribunal, between 2014 and the beginning of 2021 only one person recorded as stateless by the IPO submitted an appeal to the Tribunal in 2019 with their country of former habitual residence being Nigeria. This is inconsistent with the substantive decisions of the Tribunal analysed from the Tribunal’s decision archive as set out in chapter 3.2.2.4 above which accurately record findings of statelessness. According to ISD data, from 2014 to 2021 there was only one stateless individual granted international protection.101 Likewise with reference to immigration procedures in Ireland, the Repatriation Division of ISD, which considers permission to remain applications, does not retain a record of individuals who make representations that they are stateless for the purposes of seeking permission to remain under Section 3 of the Immigration Act and thus no related statistics are available. Similarly, the travel document section does not record statistics in relation to nationality or statelessness status. While there may be details on file relating to statelessness, this is based on a self-reported status by the individual concerned and not a formal designation by the Irish authorities.102 Since 2014 only one statelessness travel document has been issued to a person determined to be stateless. According to GNIB records, as of November 2019 there were 29 persons registered as stateless in the State with a significant proportion of such persons being registered with ISD in the Dublin region. It was not possible to obtain information on the residency status of the individuals concerned for the purposes of this report. In terms of applications from stateless persons for citizenship from 2014 to 2019 it was reported that 2 certificates of nationality were issued to stateless individuals with 6 applications from stateless persons still being processed at the end of 2019.103 No further information was available on the status of the two individuals granted citizenship during that time period nor the outcomes for the pending applications from stateless persons. According to the Department of Justice since 2019 there have also been two certificates of nationality issued under s.28 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956.104 This has been updated in light of a further two successful applications under this provision in 2022. A recent parliamentary question response from the Minister for Justice indicates that in the last five years there were 14 applications for citizenship received where a claim of statelessness has been made, of which nine continue to be processed at this time.105 As part of this research the Central Statistics Office (CSO) was contacted in relation to the 2016 census. In that census, it was noted that 1,167106 persons ticked ‘no nationality’ or wrote ‘stateless’ in under question 10 ‘what is your nationality?’, which provided 3 categories for responses 1) Irish; 2) Other nationality; 3) No nationality.107 There was no change in the wording of this question from the 2011 census and the CSO indicated that the question was completed by self-declaration, so it is possible that some respondents may have ticked ‘no nationality’ in error. The next census was postponed until April 2022 in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Upon consultation by UNHCR with the CSO, the step-by-step guide for completing the next census was updated to include the following detail with respect to the nationality question “if you are not an Irish citizen and are not recognised as a citizen by any other country mark the box ‘no citizenship.” This amendment may lead to more accurate self-reporting of stateless persons to enhance the accuracy of the data collected. 28 101 Correspondence with the IPO, August 2021. It should be noted that prior to 2014 7 stateless individuals were granted international protection since November 2002. Their countries of habitual residence included Estonia, Kuwait, Moldova, Latvia and Ukraine among others. 102 Correspondence with Principal Officer, Repatriation Division, Department of Justice, November 2019. 103 Correspondence with the Citizenship Unit, December 2019. 104 For further information see Chapter 6 below. 105 Parliamentary question response by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee to questions 444,445 and 447, 7 December 2021 available at: https://bit.ly/3FMgOG1 106 For further information see the Central Statistics Office, 2016 census reports, available at: https://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2016reports/ 107 For further information on the 2016 census see https://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2016reports/ Mapping Statelessness in Ireland