315 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress to date on the application for naturalisation by a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny. [22285/06]

An application for a certificate of naturalisation by the person referred to by the Deputy was received in the Citizenship Section of my Department on 28 February 2006.

Officials in Citizenship Section are currently processing applications for naturalisation received in the first half of 2004 and, at the present time, there are over 8,000 applications awaiting processing before that of the person in question. As things stand at present, it is likely that the application of the person in question will be finalised in the first half of 2008.

I will inform the Deputy and the person concerned when I have reached a decision on the application.