Irish citizenship rules are facing one of their biggest proposed changes in years. On 7 September 2026, RTE, The Irish Times and the Irish Examiner reported that the Minister for Justice intends to bring an Irish Nationality and Citizenship Amendment Bill 2026 to Cabinet for priority drafting.
The reported proposals would increase the ordinary residence requirement for naturalisation from five years to eight years. They would also introduce English or Irish language testing, Irish civics testing, an economic self-sufficiency requirement, a specified annual wage requirement and a requirement not to have received certain social protection payments for two years before applying.
The proposals also include new residency rules for spouses of Irish citizens, a rule that time spent in Ireland under the Temporary Protection Directive would not count towards citizenship residence for Ukrainians, and a specific power to revoke naturalised citizenship on public order or national security grounds.
These are proposals, not final law. Applicants should separate what is already in force from what has only been reported as planned legislation. One change already in force is the 8 December 2025 rule for people granted International Protection, who must generally have five years of reckonable residence before applying for citizenship.
The current practical lesson is clear: applicants should keep a full residence file. That means passport history, IRP cards, permission letters, address evidence, employment or income records, travel dates, Revenue records where relevant, and any evidence explaining gaps, refusals or periods outside Ireland.
This is especially important because the system is already under pressure. The Times reported that Ireland processed about 31,000 citizenship applications across 2024 and 2025, with around 61,000 still pending. A rushed or incomplete application can lose time at exactly the point where the rules may be changing.