IN 2012, IRISH embassies and consulates in foreign countries issued a total of 93,363 Irish passports.

In a parliamentary question in June to Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, Fianna Fáil deputy Brendan Smith asked Gilmore if he could provide a breakdown of the number of Irish passport holders in each country throughout the world.

Issuing passports

The Tánaiste told the deputy that the passport service technology system could not record the information in that format, however he could provide some information regarding the numbers of passports issued by Irish embassies and consulates around the world in 2012.

The most Irish passports were issued to people in London – a total of 52,550. The second highest amount of passports issued was in the city of Canberra, Australia, while 5,281 Irish passports were issued by the embassy in New York last year.

Over 3,000 were issued in both San Francisco and Sydney, with just seven were issued in Tallin in Estonia.

Tel Aviv

There was just three Irish passports issued by the Irish embassy and consulate in Tehran last year, the lowest amount on the list. That was followed by 4 in Meseru in the country of Lesotho.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told TheJournal.ie that the figures show either “people who are residents in that area who are applying for a passport, perhaps an Irish citizen in New York for instance, or they are people who are travelling through a certain area and have lost their passport and need one dispatched to them from Dublin”.

He added that all Irish passports are printed in Ireland. If you are abroad, a person must apply to their embassy or consulate wherever they are. “The passport office in Ireland then distributes the passport by diplomatic mail to the consulate,” he said. He said the figures provided by the Tánaiste are standard year on year.

He added:

It is a very rough guide of the number of Irish passport holders in each region. There are still people who will have their family applying for a passport for them from Ireland or you may have people with dual passports – it is not reflective of the exact figures, but they are a good indication.

Here is the list of how many Irish passports were provided by Irish embassies and consulates around the world last year (if you can’t view the list please click here):

(Department of Foreign Affairs)

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