The number of applications for Irish passports has risen to record levels with almost a quarter of a million requests since January, Ireland’s department of foreign affairs has said.
Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, said the 230,000 applications represented a 30% increase on the same period last year which puts 2019 on course for the highest level of applications in the history of the country.
A record 860,000 Irish passports issued last year, with around 200,000 coming from the UK.
More than 70% of the 2018 applications came from “the island of Ireland” which includes Northern Ireland, where all citizens can carry both Irish and British passports under the Good Friday agreement. The remaining 76,000 came from the UK and the rest of the world. This compares with the total for 2018, when 98,000 applications came from Great Britain. The figures are released in the run up to the final countdown to a potential cliff-edge Brexit, with days to go before the UK is legally due to leave the EU.
The demand has stretched the capabilities of the passport division of the Irish embassy in London as staffing levels have not been sufficient to meet the rising number of applications ahead of Brexit. Extra resources had been allocated to the passport service including hundreds of extra staff for processing and customer service.
