Uncertainty over immigration and travel rights following the Brexit vote has led to a rush of applications for Irish passports from UK citizens, Ireland's ambassador revealed.

70 per cent increase in applications

Dan Mulhall told the BBC that applications for Irish passports from people based in Britain had increased 70 per cent this year. Obtaining a passport from the Irish Republic, which will remain a member of the EU after the UK's exit, will enable the holder unfettered access to other members of the bloc after Brexit.Mr Mulhall told Radio 4's Today programme that the number of Britons claiming Irish citizenship because they had an Irish grandparent had increased “quite dramatically” since the EU referendum. Additionally, people born in Northern Ireland have an automatic right to Irish citizenship, as do Britons with an Irish parent.“The increase this year, the first few months of this year, over last year is up 70 per cent – that's the demand for Irish passports from people based in Britain,” said the ambassador. “Also, of course, people applying for Irish citizenship through a grandparent, that's gone up quite dramatically."

The rush for passports is mirrored in Germany

Mr Mulhall, who is shortly to become Ireland's ambassador to the US, said that pre-referendum, about 50,000 Irish passports a year were issued in Britain, but that this had increased to 70,000 in 2016.The rush for Irish passports has been mirrored in Germany, where about 100,000 UK expatriates live and where there has been a five-fold increase this year from Britons applying for citizenship.Meanwhile, in the UK itself, official data in May from the Passport Office in London showed that the number of EU expats living in the country had increased by more than a third during 2016.

Applications for British passports also increasing

With the post-Brexit status of the three million-plus EU citizens living in the UK still not guaranteed, 13,070 of them applied to become British citizens in 2016, an increase of 35 per cent on 2015. French citizens accounted for 2,369 of the applications – a rise of 28 per cent on 2015 – while the number of Germans seeking UK citizenship rose 60 per cent to 2,140.Michael Leigh, a Brussels-based senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the US, told the Financial Times, “There’s a feeling of uncertainty about the UK’s exit negotiations in general and about citizens’ rights in particular.“The rush to apply for different passports is partly related to the concern that citizens’ rights could be restricted in some way.”* In his BBC interview, Mr Mulhall also stressed the importance of making sure there would be no 'hard border' between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit.“We are very strongly of the view that any hardening of that border would be a very negative thing,” he said. “People have become accustomed to moving back and forth across the border. It's also an important element of the wider political process that supports the peace process.“Brexit complicates the situation for everyone in Ireland. We would prefer if Britain were to remain in the European Union – that would be the most straightforward way of maintaining the good situation we have with Northern Ireland.”

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Mr Mulhall added that talks over the border in Ireland were “in a good position” given that both sides in the Brexit negotiations appeared committed to maintaining a soft border after the UK leaves the union.For related news and features, visit our Brexit section.Access hundreds of global services and suppliers in our Online Directory  Get access to our free Global Mobility Toolkit  

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