So far this year the Department of Justice has received 760 applications for naturalisation, compared with 745 for all of last year. The number of post-nuptial citizenship applications, from those married to Irish citizens, is 366. Last year a total of 415 such applications were received, according to the Minister, Mr O'Donoghue.

He told Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, that 1,257 people have been waiting a minimum of six months for a decision on their application for naturalisation.

Of that figure 705 have been waiting for between one and two years, while 130 are waiting for more than two years, and 442 are waiting for up to one year.

He said 312 people have been awaiting decisions on post-nuptial applications for at least six months, of whom 28 have waited more than two years, 73 for up to two years and 211 for less than a year.

Mr Shatter said the waiting times were "completely unacceptable" and called on the Minister to concede that his Department was incapable of making decisions within a reasonable time-frame for either asylum applications or for the "far simpler area" of applications for people married to Irish nationals.

The Minister said that while he would be the first to accept the service was inadequate, significant additional resources were being allocated.

He said he expected "improvements in the short term", but could not give a precise timescale.

These resources included a staff complement of about 140, compared to 55 before the Government decision to increase the numbers.

Eleven new staff were in place, 20 were being trained and the remainder were being recruited.

He conceded that he had received complaints from deputies in all parties, as well as from Independent TDs and the public.

He commended people dealing with asylum and immigration cases as doing "very sensitive work extremely well".

"It is a difficult area and we are trying to improve this service."