THE number of British people applying for an Irish passport has risen in the last year.
Figures released by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for passport applications show that 4,243 people received the Irish travel and identification document in 2015 – 488 more than the previous year.
Last year 507 British citizens, entitled to apply for an Irish passport through the granny rule, applied to the Irish Government for a passport.
This is up from 379 in 2014 – an increase of 33 per cent or 128 applications.
The figures also show an increase in the number of second-generation British citizens applying for passports – up from 3,376 in 2014 to last year’s 3,736.
Britain’s referendum on its EU membership, set for June 23, may be a reason for the surge of interest.
Birmingham-born Stephen Hannon is an Irish passport holder and now wants his children to experience the benefits of being EU citizens.
Mr Hannon, who currently lives with his family in Spain, said: “I'd prefer them to remain EU citizens both from a practical point of view in terms of ease of travel and reciprocal healthcare but also from a personal standpoint. There is no doubt for me that the whole EU project needs some reworking, but I still think on the whole it provides a lot of benefits.”
Carrie Neal, who lives in Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, also applied for her first Irish passport this year.
“I am proud to be both a British and Irish citizen, but another aspect of that pride is being part of the EU and I wish to continue to be that," Ms Neal told The Irish Post.
“If the UK does decide to leave the EU, I'm glad I can depend on my Irish citizenship to allow me to still be with the EU and have the freedoms associated with that.”
When asked what might have contributed to the rise in Irish passport applications in Britain, a spokesperson for the DFA said: “We do not extrapolate and attribute increases or decreases in applications to particular issues or reasons, including the UK’s EU referendum, as we don’t collate the reasons for application, rather the basis on which they apply.”
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