An overnight update to the popular StampWise rule-change tracker confirms that the Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2026 remains at the “General Scheme” stage and therefore has no legal effect for now. The tracker – which monitors Oireachtas paperwork daily – was checked at 06:00 on 12 November and still shows the existing five-year reckonable-residence requirement (or three years for spouses of Irish citizens) as the operative law. The proposed legislation would lengthen the basic residency requirement for naturalisation to eight years, extend the spouse route to five, and introduce language, civics and income tests, but none of these provisions can take effect until the full Bill is enacted and separately commenced by ministerial order. Business immigration advisers say demand for citizenship has already surged. According to figures cited in earlier media reports, naturalisation applications jumped 236 % in September after the Government first signalled the move; corporate mobility managers are therefore warning employees who may qualify under existing rules to gather documentation quickly before any transition window closes. The Department of Justice has not yet indicated whether grandfathering or transitional concessions will be offered. The next procedural hurdle is pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration. That hearing – originally pencilled in for early November – was postponed because no committee room was available. TDs on the committee have told the Irish Examiner they expect scrutiny to begin later this month, but with Ireland’s EU-presidency diary already congested, insiders doubt the Bill can pass both Houses before Christmas. For global-mobility teams the message is clear: the five-year rule is still alive, but the political will to tighten eligibility is undiminished. Employers should advise staff that any new criteria are likely to arrive suddenly once enacted, and that time spent in Ireland under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive for Ukrainians will not count towards the proposed eight-year threshold. HR departments are therefore reassessing long-term assignment policies, budgeting for language training and revisiting permanent-transfer packages in anticipation of a more onerous naturalisation path.
Source: StampWise.ie
