THE IRISH PASSPORT office has seen an overall rise of 11% in the number of applications this year-to-date compared to the same period last year.
June saw an influx of 7,045 applications from Northern Ireland and 5,719 applications from Great Britain. These represent increases of 9.5% and over 20%, respectively, compared to the same month in 2015.
There has also been a significant increase in queries regarding passports and applications from Northern Ireland.
Speaking about the need for a passport office located in the North, Seanadóir Niall Ó Donnghaile said that “these figures are only set to rise further”.
Ó Donnghaile stated that the facility is needed “in order to greater enfranchise people across Ireland and also to ease the burden on staff”.
This sudden rise in figures is thought to be in direct response to the EU referendum in Britain, to which 52% of the population voted to leave the European Union.
In the aftermath of Brexit, there were reports of queues for Irish passport applications in the mainly Unionist Bangor area of Co Down. One local told TheJournal.ie that her mother-in-law witnessed a queue for applications at Bangor main street post office.
The passport service is also in peak season, with 44,927 applications in the system as of 11 July.
The passport service issued more than 670,000 passports in total last year.
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