Huge surge in demand for Irish passports as Brexit nears

DEMAND for Irish passports at the embassy in London has surged as the clock ticks down to Brexit, with almost as many applications received in the first half of 2018 as in the whole of 2015, before the EU referendum.

Figures released to Fine Gael’s Neale Richmond, chairman of the Brexit committee in the Seanad, showed there were almost 45,000 applications in the first half of 2018.

Mr Richmond suggested that the ‘looming disaster of Brexit’ was prompting eligible British people to reconnect with their Irish heritage.

He said: ‘Since the people of the UK voted, narrowly, to leave the EU in 2016, we have seen a continuing rise in the number of applications for Irish passports in the UK.’

Current rules entitle those born to Irish parents or grandparents to apply for an Irish passport through a claim to citizenship.

‘At least 10% of the UK’s population, not including Northern Ireland, are estimated to qualify for an Irish passport and, in light of Brexit, many – including a number of my own family members – are staking their claim to an Irish passport,’ he said.

There were 46,229 applications in 2015, 63,453 in 2016 and a ‘whopping’ 80,752 in 2017, he said. ‘Figures for the first half of 2018 show applications received in London are already at 44,962 and it is predicted that, based on this, 2018 will be the busiest year yet for applications in the UK.

‘While many in the UK are concerned with the looming disaster of Brexit. We must seize the positives from this wave of people reconnecting with their Irish heritage. Our post-Brexit UK-Irish relations can be built on a strong, connected, diaspora,’ he said.