Leave it to the Irish government to arbitrarily remove an efficient process (which clearly was deemed legally sound for the past 2 years) in favor of making people wait an additional 1-6 months to complete their already 2 year long citizenship journey. Absolutely ridiculous.With the re-introduction of citizenship ceremonies the temporary process of swearing the oath of fidelity to the nation by means of a sworn affidavit will cease. This process was introduced to facilitate the continuation of the naturalisation process during the Covid 19 pandemic. Please note that if you do not complete the steps above in time to be invited to the June ceremony your application for naturalisation cannot be completed until the next ceremony which is planned for December 2022.
There is no way it is in any way more "secure" or better to force the ceremony. At this point in the process, the person themselves has been vetted and it's a question of obtaining the oath - something which a sworn affidavit is fully capable of achieving. I can see no reason - other than some form of graft surrounding the ceremony - why this should not be made an optional thing where people can choose between the ceremony or affidavit.
Rant over. All the best to all those of you who now have to add up to 6 months to their wait.