225 Ms Fox asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the financial and health difficulties being experienced by persons (details supplied) due to delays in processing an application in the name of a person for residency on the basis of marriage to an Irish national. [13592/06]

I am not aware of any specific financial and health difficulties being experienced by the person in question. However, an application for permission to remain in the State, based on marriage to an Irish national, was received from the person concerned in April 2005. Applications of this type, in fairness to all other such applicants, are dealt with in strict chronological order and currently take approximately 16 months to process. It should be noted that marriage to an Irish national does not confer an automatic right of residence in the State.