British applications for Irish passports up 42% last year

 

The number of British people who applied for an Irish passport for the first time increased by 42 per cent last year.
It continues a sharp increase since the Brexit referendum in 2016.
In 2015, 3,644 people who were born in Britain applied for an Irish passport for the first time.
But there has been a sharp increase since the UK voted to leave the European Union in June 2016.
In 2016, there were nearly 13,500 applications, rising to almost 25,000 in 2017 and over 30,000 in 2018.
Last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs says over 43,000 British people applied for an Irish passport for the first time.
The processing of applications has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic this year but, by the end of last month, 22,197 people who were born in British applied for an Irish passport for the first time in 2020.