According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, in January this year, over 7,000 people from Northern Ireland applied for an Irish passport, up from 3,973 in the same month last year. There were also close to 6,000 applications from Britain last month.
It comes as questions are asked around the planned Brexit negotiations and concerns grow that UK passport holders will lose benefits like freedom to work anywhere in the union, in the wake of the country's exit.
Don't book travel without checking your passport first! https://t.co/TSgBBK1Uvl Thanks to @IrishTimes for this timely reminder
— Irish Passport (@PassportIRL) 23 January 2017
Since Britain voted to leave the EU, various sectors of society have had to start changing policies and systems. The Irish Passport Office is one example of this and they have had to recruit 230 temporary staff.
The Irish embassy in London has also confirmed the surge in passports from numerous Brits.
"We have seen a huge increase in the number of people in Britain applying for Irish passports since the Brexit vote. Our Passport office is dealing with the workload and will have to hire more staff," a spokesperson for the Irish embassy in London told Sputnik.
@WilliamsJon I'm part of the 41 per cent and the 48 of course
— Raymond Snoddy (@RaymondSnoddy) January 5, 2017
Charlie Flanagan, Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister, said an online adult passport renewal system will be rolled out before the end of March to cope with the demand.
"Early indicators in 2017 are showing that increased demand for [Irish] passports is likely to be sustained, certainly in the immediate future. I am carefully monitoring passport services," Mr. Flanagan said.
A whopping 733,060 Irish passports were issued in 2016-- a 9% increase over the numbers from 2015. https://t.co/yL7NFL5Kmg pic.twitter.com/5HSrC9wtFj
— EmbassyofIrelandUSA (@IrelandEmbUSA) 5 January 2017
Ireland has become the ideal location for Brits who want to keep an EU passport, once the UK leaves the bloc. Anyone who has a parent or grandparent born in Ireland is entitled to an Irish passport.
According to figures published by Irish news outlet RTE, in 2016 alone, passport applications from Britain increased by over 40 percent.
