They can enjoy free movement rights, seek employment in other European Union states without having a work permit, use public healthcare facilities across the bloc and benefit from welfare and other rights.
Advertisement
“I’m not happy with the result”, said Miriam Sottile, a 25-year-old English teacher whose father is Italian and who is now planning to apply for an Italian passport.
“However, reports of queues outside the passport offices are incorrect”.
“I urge those who believe they need to apply for an Irish passport immediately to enjoy free travel in the European Union, to take full account of the facts before making an application”.
Other Post Offices are having similar problems.
Armagh City’s post office handed out an unprecedented 400 Irish passport forms on Friday.
“We have an emergency order coming to meet the extra demand on Thursday 28th June”.
Mr Richmond, who has two English cousins who recently applied for Irish passports, said: “British citizens with Irish grandparents applying for Irish passports could now move from a torrent to a flood”.
According to Google Trends, searches for “Irish passport” increased just after the Brexit results were confirmed.
The phrase “Irish passport requirements” jumped 800 percent in the past week, while variants of “how to get an irish passport” were all up 250 percent.
Meetings will also take place with the First and Deputy First Ministers and there will be separate discussions on the divisive issue with SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, who has vowed to block any attempts to drag Northern Ireland out of the European Union against its will, and David Ford MLA, leader of the Alliance Party – another advocate of the Remain campaign.
Anyone born on the island of Ireland before January 1, 2005 is entitled to Irish citizenship.
Advertisement
British citizens are eligible for Irish citizenship if a parent or grandparent was born in either Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland-which applies to about six million citizens of the United Kingdom, according to The Irish Times. Estimates for the number of second and third generation Irish people living in Britain vary but it is thought that one in four people have Irish heritage. If all those applications are processed, it could net the Irish government around €700,000, around US$775,000.
