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IRISH PASSPORTS WON’T be changing colour any time soon, but they certainly are in demand in Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
According to the latest figures on Irish passports issued to date in 2017, 20% of all those issued this year went to Irish citizens in the north and Britain.
Said the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney, TD:
The number of applicants from Northern Ireland and Great Britain has continued to rise. Overall, almost 20% of the total number of applications received by the Passport Service this year were from Irish citizens in Northern Ireland or Great Britain.
It was another record year for Irish passports, as 779,000 passports were issued in 2017. That’s up from 2016′s also record-breaking figure of 740k.
The Tánaiste said:
“This is the highest number of Irish passports ever issued in one year. It represents an increase of over 6% compared to 2016 (itself a record-breaking year), and an increase of over 15% since 2015.”
The Passport Service has undertaken what Coveney described as an “ambitious reform programme to meet the unprecedented demand for passports from Irish citizens at home and abroad”, which is also looking at how to “continuously strengthen systems guarding against fraud and protecting the integrity of the Irish passport”.
To cope with the demand, it launched an online passport renewal service in March of this year. This enables Irish citizens to renew their passport online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
So far, over 100,000 passports have been issued following online applications.
Over 38,000 Irish citizens went for the passport card, which was introduced in 2016.
But Coveney took the opportunity to remind people not to lose sight of their passport’s expiry date, and to apply for renewal outside of the peak season.
Minister of State Ciarán Cannon, TD added that for those Irish citizens choosing to apply through Irish Embassies and Consulates during 2017, the Irish Consulate in New York continued to be the location with the highest demand for passports, followed by Canberra, San Francisco, Sydney and Pretoria.
Passport stats in 2017
Passports applications by location
According to AA Ireland, 13% of people have arrived at an airport to discover that they had forgotten their passport. Overall, 15.77% of men reported doing this, compared to 9.87% of women. Its AA Travel Insurance survey also found that over 1 in 10 Irish people have either lost or had their passport stolen at some stage in their lives.
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To think that 100 years ago, irish men and women fought for our freedom, and now irish passports are being issued out like confetti
@Kevin Moylan: They’re being issued to citizens. Irish born or Children of Irish citizens only.
Hardly confetti.
An annual passport tax for non residents for the benefits of an Irish passport? Ring fence it for social housing.
@Sam Alexander:
Irish citizens should not be taxed for having a passport wherever they live.
@Nick Allen:
Should be no free dinners. If they want the services of the embassies it should come at a cost. If they are not paying taxes in Ireland, no free Embassy services.
@Nick Allen: That’s the solution from the looney lefties, tax anything that doesn’t effect me directly and put the money to *insert hot button topic here*!
@Sam Alexander: ape! What about all the money Irish people living abroad come back and pump back into the country?
@Link: Remind us who is and who has been in power since the foundation of the Dáil…
There you go…
Brexit has encouraged some British people to apply for Irish passports.
@Fiona deFreyne: Water is wet
@Fiona deFreyne:
My passport expired in April, this encouraged me to renew mine
@Nick Allen: Mine expired at the same time too. It was the trip to Thailand the missus booked that encouraged me to renew it promptly.
@Fiona deFreyne: probably more interested in maintaining EU citizenship than Irish..
@Fiona deFreyne:
No Way ……..
Question is, How many DUP members applied ?
780k 10 yr passports issued to a general population would seem to indicate a population of 8 milliion? Not excessive if your including 2nd generation ex pat.
I’d love us to switch to a green passport like we had in the past. It can be done. We aren’t obliged to have a burgundy passport .
@IrishLiberal: you can have a green one when we leave the EU. Good enough reason to leave right there.
With the huge demand for Irish passports because of Brexit. The British people should be charged more.
@Just Some Guy: They already are. Equilivant of €150 including shipping
There is no such thing as an Irish Passport..Our embassy only issue EU passports.
@tom McCormack: No, it’s Irish all right. You couldn’t mistake it for any other country’s passport. Ours are well designed. Maybe it’s a while since you had one? Renew it, open it and look at it.
The Passport is actually no longer valid since the Fascists decided to use a de Facto ID card called PSC card instead, which you need to renew your Passport if you live in the ‘republic’
@eastsmer: there is nothing wrong with implementing the Dutch/German system of mandatory registration with the Town/City Council where you live and mandatory de-registration when you move house to another Town/City. At least it’s easy to find criminals easily that way. Every registered person pays a small Town/City tax which ensures provision of roads, cycling paths, foot paths, town parks, the town square, provision of local services like issuance of driver’s licences, passports, and it helps pays for salaries of administration for town planning/expansion. Unlike Ireland when an expansion is done the Town/City council purchase the land which is transferred at cost to new home owners.
Wonder how many passports where issued in Lagos?
Allowing for approx 43K issued outside UK & IRL something like 655k were issued on the island of Ireland. This converts to 88% ROI, 12% NI – hardly a deluge when the population ratio is 72:28. These figures would indicate not even all nationalists in NI go for an Irish passport.
have your say