18 day gap in stamps

Hi I am getting my citizenship application ready to send off.
I have an 18 day gap in my stamps from January this year - this is because I waited a long time to receive my approval of my permanent residency and during this time my 5 year residency expired. I had already got a temporary extension on my 5 year residency and then when I got the approval letter I couldn't get an appointment with the immigration officer at my local garda station until after my stamp expired. I told the officer and they said it would be fine because it was only a short time.

Now when I do the online calculator there is a tick next to that I have 5 years residency (I have been living here 6.5 years) but a cross saying 'Year prior to application not continuous'. Do I need to wait until Jan 2021 to send it off or can I send now with a letter explaining and the printout of the calculator even though it is showing that I am not eligible.

Anyway I thought the rule about 1 year of staying in the country before applying was overturned?
Any help would be much appreciated,
Thanks

I strongly suggest you to wait until January of 2021 before applying.
1 year residency requirement has not been overturned. The outcome of that case was to allow legal residents to spend up to 6 weeks per year outside of the country without any affect on the citizenship application.

You were living here illegally for a short period of time. However considering your circumstances I don't think this will negatively affect your citizenship application if you wait until one 1 year is complete since the date of your most recent permission renewal. You will then meet a requirement of 1 year of legal residence plus 4 years during the 8 years preceding that period and will be good to apply.

In any case if you plan to go on holiday this summer or a business trip anytime soon, submitting application is not a great idea, as your passport will not be returned quickly, putting your travels at risk.

I wont be travelling this year however if government guidelines have relaxed a bit more by early next year I hope to travel then hence wanting to apply now rather than waiting.
It seems unfair if I can't apply now due to this as it was not my fault. I waiting 16 months for my Permanent Residency and had to have a temporary card as mine expired, and then it got approved just as my temporary card was expiring - so if I was in the country illegally it was their fault and not mine and nothing I could do about it.
I wonder has anyone any experience of this?

write down the letter and explain why u had gap and sign it and bring to your local immigration officer and ask him to sign and stamp it so this way he can confirm that your excuse is valid.
its very simple.

If you have the original permanent residency letter, the letter issuance date starts before your previous permission ends, then your residency has not been broken.

In the residency calculator, you can put in the date when the letter was issued. In your application, you just need to write a cover letter to explain the reason that you used the letter issuance date instead of the date in your passport - you can explain that you received your permission letter before the previous permission expires, but your local Garda station was fully booked at the time. If you have any email correspondence with your local Garda station, print it off as well, although I don't believe that would cause any issue.

Thank you very much, I managed to find the original letter with date on and saw it says that I can use that date for the calculator so I will do that.

Just another question - can I use p60s for one of the 3 proof of residence? because they are asking for p60s for every year for proof of employment also, can you use the same documents for 2 things?
Thanks for the help guys

You can if the P60 has your address on it, although they may ask for more proofs (e.g. bank statements and utility bills for specific months).