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.
It puts 2019 on course for the highest level of applications in the history of the country, after a record 860,000 Irish passports issued last year, with around 200,000 coming from the UK.
Coveney’s department said 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.
It did not comment on any “Brexit bounce”, but 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 come on the final countdown to a potential cliff-edge Brexit, with 13 days to go before the UK is legally due to leave the European Union.
A furtherrise in applications is expected this week because of the focus on St Patrick’s day activities.
Last month, the passport division of the Irish embassy in London said it was “stretched and working under pressure”, and that staffing levels “are not sufficient” to meet the rising number of applications ahead of Brexit.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs put the rise in applications down to an increase in travelling and a tendency towards early renewal. Coveney said extra resources had been allocated to the passport service.
“Given the demand we are experiencing significant extra resources have been given to the passport service including hundreds of extra staff for processing and customer service,” he said.
