Ireland.

No law of its own: the Minister for Justice used the discretion in section 16 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 (as amended 1986) to waive the residence condition for investors, treating the investment as 'Irish associations'. Government approved the approach in April 1989, but the Department's review counts naturalisations from 1988 (and the 2002 Minister said it was introduced in 1988; the 2000 Minister said 1989). Applicant, spouse and children under 18 could be included. Before 1994 the Department's working rule was about IR£500,000; from October 1994 an advisory group applied a minimum net investment of IR£1 million per applicant, a residence to be kept 5 years and 60 days' presence in the 2 years after naturalisation. New applications stopped on 4 Sep 1996; the scheme was formally ended on 20 Apr 1998, but cases already accepted were processed later (naturalisations recorded up to 2004). Section 10 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 removed the legal basis. Totals given to the Dáil: 143 persons by Feb 1998; 183 persons (107 investors) in the final count. The Department's 1998 review found most early cases did not meet the published conditions (e.g. good-character evidence in 17 of 66).

Residence by investment run by the Department of Justice (INIS, later Immigration Service Delivery) under a Government decision of 2012 and ministerial guidelines, without its own legislation. Approved investors and their spouse/partner and minor children got Stamp 4 residence (right to work and study): 2 years, renewed for 3, then 5-year renewals while the investment (held at least 3 years) stayed in place. No residence obligation beyond visiting Ireland once a year. No fast track to citizenship: naturalisation needs 5 years' physical (reckonable) residence, so investors who did not live in Ireland could not qualify. Projects were vetted by an inter-departmental Evaluation Committee; the minister decided. Most money went via the enterprise option into project vehicles (nursing homes, social housing, hotels) put together by agents for groups of mainly Chinese investors. Closed to new applications 15 Feb 2023; applications on hand and investors for already approved projects are still being processed (1,192 pending in March 2026).