VikingDub: Once again you've joined a thread and your comment seems to be simply belligerent and unhelpful. I absolutely disagree with your point. Your words "remember that naturalisation is a privilege and not a right" are very reminiscent of Minsister O'Dowell's comments in the Dail, which always struck me more as an excuse and a distraction whenever he commented on timelines for citizenship applications.
As you say, according to Irish law there is no direct entitlement to Irish citizenship, the immigration and DOFA websites are clear that immigrants may apply for Irish citizenship after a 3/5 year period depending on how they came into the country. Nearly all countries have simliar rules so as to encourage immigrants who intend to stay in the country to become fully part of it. A person cannot be a full member of a society unless they have the right to vote in local/general elections and can live in peace and free in the knowledge that they will be protected by the state in which they live. Denying new immigrants these social freedoms marginalises them and keeps them in an unsecure and tentative state in their new country.
I strongly believe that if we are to avoid the mistakes of other countries who have experienced mass immigration in the past (e.g. FR/UK) we need to encourage long term immigrants to apply for citizenship, and if they do, treat their application with respect. This does not mean that simply because someone wants to stay they should be allowed, proper checks should be made to check criminal past, intent to stay in the country, respect of the values of the country, intent to integrate with local people, etc.
What I and others on this board do not understand or respect is how long it takes the DoJ to handle applications once submitted. If the DoJ requires further information, request it. If the DoJ requires a different format of information, request it. But surely the DoJ could get a complete and comprehensive list of what they need to feel satisfied that an applicant is being honest in their application and would be a suitable candidate to affirm Irish Citizenship upon.
How long can it take to consider the documentation submitted? According to the DoJ, the only outside information they request is from the Dept of Finance and the Garda Vetting Office. As an individual I can request the same information they request and have an answer back within 7 days. So, if you consider that an average application might include 20-30 pages of information, should it really take so long for a trained officer to consider they application? In all liklihood it takes only a matter of hours. What seems evident to me from repeated responses in the Dail from consecutive Ministers of Justice, is that they continually use the excuse of "it is a right, not an entitlment" to simply shelve applications and only review them once a particular time period (2-3-4 years) has passed.
mktsoi wrote:about the community service proposal in uk. this is another stupid idea as well. if you do community services, what does it show? most of the brits are not willing to do it themself, why should they other people to do it? they drink lots of Guinness in the pub here. should they ask the new immigrants to drink lots of Guinness to fit into the society as well?
mktsoi: To be honest, unless you are planning on getting Irish citizenship simply to get the next flight out of this country and ease your travel to other countries, I'm not really sure why you are applying at all. While I understand you have been through a long trial with the Irish Immigration system, you seem to have nothing but utter disregard for the Irish people. If are are simply all "guinness swilling idiots", then why would you wish to take on Irish citizenship and be classed as one of us. I find it quite insulting that you class everyone by your experience with a few. I think you would be well advised to try to make better Irish friends if the experiences you describe in many posts is all you know of Irish people. Your posts are invariably an angry diatrabe not merely against the Immigration system but against Irish people in General.
In response to your comments about the community service proposal in the UK. I think you only have to look at the problems that have been experienced with mass Immigration in the UK to understand such proposals. Similar proposals are already in place in other countries such as CA/AU. There are huge tracts of communities in the UK who do not speak the local language, do interact only with other ex-pats and fail to integrate fully into local society. As someone who has lived for many years outside my own country I understand that the onus is on the immigrant themselves to work at this integration and that it is not always an easy task. But to avoid ghettoisation and eventual uprisings and unrest (remember the riots last year in Paris?) such attempts are well meant and seem to me to go in the right direction. We do not want to have a 2nd generation of immigrants to feel like 2nd class citizens in the only country they have ever known as home.