An Irish language version of the current application form for Irish citizenship is available to download on the Department of Justice website from today.
It comes following a campaign by a Chinese couple living and working in Ireland.
Dr Fangzhe Qiu, a fluent Irish speaker, is an assistant professor of Old Irish at UCD and has lived in Ireland since 2011 with his partner Lijing Peng, who is an assistant lecturer at Trinity College Dublin's centre for literary translation.
The couple applied for naturalisation in September 2020 but last month their application was returned and they were told to re-apply through English.
The couple were unhappy and contacted the Department of Justice, local TDs and An Coimisinéir Teanga.
At the beginning of this month, Dr Qiu and Ms Peng were told a new Irish language version of the citizenship application form was being drawn up.
The Irish language version went live under the Naturalisation Application Forms section of the department's website today.
Dr Qiu said he is delighted to be able to finally apply for citizenship through Irish because of the regard in which he holds the language.
However, he said it is still difficult to locate the Irish version of the form on the site.
A Department of Justice spokesperson said today that the department would look into making the Irish language form easier to locate on the site.
"It's hard to defend your language rights against the State's carelessness towards Irish," Mr Qiu said today.
The next hurdle he has to overcome, he said, is to obtain a citizenship application form in Irish for his son who attends a Gaelscoil.
