Seeking advice re. Stamp 4 renewal

A brief history of my immigration status in Ireland:

I first came to Ireland in 2003 aged 12 under family reunification as a minor dependent of my father which had a working permit at the time. Went through my entire secondary level and third level education in Ireland. When I was 16 and had to registered with INIS I was issued a Stamp 2A then Stamp 2 when I turned 18 and went to college. In 2010 both my parents were naturalize as Irish citizen, as was my underage younger brother. In 2012 my stamp status was changed to Stamp 4 based on family relation, which i have renewed every year since then. I was told since I was an adult now I would have to apply for naturalization on my own right.

2003-2006 Underage minor no stamp
2006-2008 Stamp 2A
2000-2012 Stamp 2
2012-2021 Stamp 4

Since 2012 I have been renewing my Stamp 4 in person at the INIS office Bugh Quay without any problem. However when I summited to the new renewal website I got a rejection a few days later:

"Following careful consideration and due process, it has been decided to refuse your application for the reason set out below:-

Please apply to Dept of Justice for permission in your own right as previously instructed last year. When you receive letter granting you permission to remain in the state, please make a new application and upload all relevant documents. A refund has been arranged

It is open to you to re-apply online at a later stage when the reason for the refusal, as outlined above, has been rectified.

Please note that since your application has been refused, you may now be considered to be illegally residing in the State and may become the subject of a Deportation Order if you do not renew your permission.

Please address the issues noted above as a matter of urgency. While no action will be taken immediately, you need to be aware that failure to rectify the issue and renew your registration in good time may lead to you being considered to be illegally residing in the State and you may be at risk of becoming the subject of a Deportation Order. It is therefore in your own interests to resolve this issue as soon as possible."

The thing is I was never instructed last year to provide letter granting me permission to remain in the state by the Department of Justice. The officer did commented that I might be eligible to apply for Irish citizenship by naturalization, which I'm still in the process of gathering documents for application. I also put in an application for stamp 5 last october, received an acknowledgement reply via post but nothing beyond that. I'm now really confused as to what I should/can do next, where/who should I write to in the Dept of Justice? If anyone here could advice or point me to the right direction? Thank you.

18 years and you haven't applied for naturalisation. That is a big lesson to learn.

Only children who are under the age of 18 are covered by Family Reunification. Once you reach the age of 18, you need to have your own rights to remain in the country. For vast majority of people, they would have already got naturalised long before that.

INIS normally gives some leniency by granting Stamp 4 for a couple of years so you have time to apply for a different stamp, but it appears that you haven't done anything to change your status in the last 9 years, and it's now coming back to bite you.

INIS may not have given you a letter. They may have casually asked to you to get a different stamp when you last renewed your Stamp 4 in person. Once they told you that, they would record the note in their system. You can appeal this decision by saying that you have never received any instruction like this, but it is quite unlikely for it to be accepted as the onus is on you to make sure that you follow the legislation, and you have been given 9 years of Stamp 4 already.

You need to now act as a matter of urgency. If you are employed, get a proper permission, be it work or study or marriage, and apply for naturalisation as soon as you are eligible (You would need a valid Stamp 1/4 for the past 365 days before you can apply for naturalisation).