'Record number' of Irish passports issued

Applications for Irish passports from people living in Great Britain have almost doubled since the EU referendum

A record number of Irish passports - more than 700,000 - have been issued so far this year.

The Republic of Ireland's passport office tweeted the milestone: "Wow, we have just broken a new record, over 700,000 Passports have been issued so far this year! #RecordBreaker".

Last year, nearly 670,000 Irish passports were issued.

There has been a surge in applications from Great Britain and Ireland since the UK voted to leave the EU in June.

An Irish passport would allow its holder to continue to move and work freely within other EU member states once the UK withdraws.

Euro 2016

The latest 2016 figures available are up until the end of October, and they show that there were 635,635 passport applications, compared to 566,142 in 2015.

The number of those applications from Northern Ireland was 59,043, up 27% from 2015. With regards to Great Britain applications, the figure was 58,015, up 42% from 2015.

The Republic's Passport Service had already seen a surge in demand prior to Brexit, due to an increase in outbound travel, the Euro 2016 football championships and new US travel requirements for biometric passports.

People with a parent or grandparent born in Ireland are among those who can apply for an Irish passport.