Madam, – In 2008, an average of 23 out of every 1,000 foreigners resident in the EU became naturalised citizens of their country of residence. The rate in Ireland that year was less than one third of the EU average, at around 7 per 1,000 (Eurostat 36/2010).
Applications for naturalisation in Ireland were at their highest on record in 2009, when the Department of Justice and Law Reform assessed 25,582 applications. Our experiences suggest that many applicants were applying for the second or third time. Astonishingly, only 18 per cent of them were successful.
We seem to have an unwritten policy of creating a class of disenfranchised semi-citizens, who are expected to pay tax but are not allowed to vote.
Shouldn’t Ireland’s long-term residents who share the burdens of austerity with the rest of us not also have a say in who they would like to lead us out of the mess? – Yours, etc,