Ireland issues over 775,000 passports so far this year

THE TÁNAISTE,  Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin TD, has said that the Passport Service has issued over 775,000 passports so far in 2024, and current demand forecasts indicate that over a million passports will issue by the end of the year.

In a statement, the Tánaiste said that virtually all complete passport applications continue to processed within or before advertised turnaround times. He said: “Passport Online is by far the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to apply for a passport.”

The statement said Passport Online is amongst the most innovative passport services in the world. Through Passport Online, citizens also have the option of applying for a passport card, which is valid for travel in the EU, EEA, Switzerland and the UK.

Some 90% of applicants across the island of Ireland now apply using Passport Online, a service that is available to all types of applicants including children applying for their first passport.

The Tánaiste also released application figures received per county, which show that the Passport Service has received the most applications from the counties of Dublin, Cork and Galway.

The Tánaiste said: “I am immensely proud of the work done by the Passport Service so far this year, particularly in dealing with the high demand of recent months. The staff of the Passport Service continue to deliver an exceptionally high standard of service to Irish citizens and I would like to thank them for their continued hard work.

“With just a few months left in 2024, the Passport Service is expecting to be as busy as ever, especially as forecasts are indicating we will issue over a million passports this year.”

AN IRISH PASSPORT costs only €75, but to get one you’ll need to prove you’re eligible to carry one through birth, family or residence status. You’ll also be able to get one if you become an honorary citizen of Ireland — but you need to do something like manage the international soccer team (like Jack Charlton) or open a library (like Alfred Chester Beatty).

The first people to carry specifically Irish identification papers were those who made up the delegation to the League of Nations in August 1923. After much quibbling over the wording with the British Government, the first Irish passports were issued to the general public in April 1924. They proclaimed the bearer to be “a “Citizen of the Irish Free State and the British Commonwealth of Nations”.

The British were not best pleased with this proclamation arguing that the Irish were still “British subjects”. The British government duly instructed its consular and passport staff throughout the world that Irish Free State passports were not to be recognised if the holder was not described in the passport as a "British Subject".

This led to considerable practical difficulty for Irish Free State citizens abroad, with many having to carry British passports in addition to their Irish Free State passports. Few other countries had any difficulty with the new Irish passports.

The situation improved a little in the 1930s, with a certain practical relaxation by the British authorities, although difficulties did occasionally surface.

However in 1939 — in the wake of the declaration of the Constitution of Ireland in 1937 — the Irish Government under Éamon De Valera decided to make changes to the passport, with holders being described as a “Citizen of Ireland”, the current description in modern passports.

In 1949, with Ireland becoming a Republic and leaving the Commonwealth, all anomalies regarding passports were removed.

BEFORE 1924, those Irish people venturing abroad travelled on British passports, although in practice the first modern British passport did not emerge until 1914, a product of the British Nationality and Status Aliens Act 1914. It consisted of a single page, folded into eight and held together with a cardboard cover.

Globally, passports were generally not required for travel until after the First World War. Nonetheless they have a very long history.

The earliest surviving ‘passport’ in Britain appeared 599 years ago during the reign of Henry V, in an Act of Parliament dated 1414. But this is relatively modern compared to what can reasonably be described as the world’s first passport. The first bearer of documents of safe passage was, not to put too fine a point on it, a sub-contractor. Nehemiah, according to the Old Testament, was engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem. The better to get on with this civil engineering task, he was granted letters from the Persian king requesting the governors of the lands beyond the Euphrates to grant him safe passage to Judah.

This was some 2,500 years ago, making his passport easily the oldest so far detected.

Passport Applications Received by County 2024 (to date)

(Figures courtesy of Department of Foreign Affairs, An Roinn Gnóthai Eachtracha)

See More: Applying For A Passport, Citizenship, Irish Passports

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