In what is seen as yet another side effect of Brexit and the UK’s imminent split from the rest of Europe, the demand for Irish passports has risen 50% since the referendum effectively doubling the number of foreign-born Irish persons in Britain.
A person with an Irish parent or grandparent born in Ireland is entitled to an Irish passport. The number of applications for such passports rose sharply with 779,000 passports issued in 2017 according to statistics released by Ireland’s department of foreign affairs. This increase amounts to the highest number of Irish passports issued in one year, and is a 6% increase over applications made in 2016 (also a record-breaking year) and a 15% increase over the 2015 numbers.
The move is seen as a popular one among persons wanting to maintain their links to the continent and avail themselves of all possible options once the UK leaves the EU in 2019. Holding an additional passport in this manner creates no hardship as Britain, unlike some other European countries, allows dual citizenship.
