2018 to be busiest year for Irish passport applications in UK
The demand for Irish passports in Britain continues to rise.
Figures from Ireland's Embassy in London suggest 2018 will be the busiest year on record for applications.
In 2015, the year before the Brexit referendum, over 46,000 people applied for passports.
In the first half of this year, more than 44,000 applications have been made already, suggesting the final figure for 2018 could reach 90,000.
Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond says that is up from 80,000 last year.
"Year on year we've seen an increase. Last year, in 2017 it peaked at just over 80,000," he said.
"However, the figures released for the first half of 2018 show that we already have 45,000 applications for Irish passports from the diaspora in the UK.
"The Embassy officials believe this is going to be a record year with maybe about 90,000-95,000 passports issued."
