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Seanad
‹ Order of Business

Irish passports after Brexit

Summary

Senator Richmond raises demand for Irish passports and uncertainty among British residents in Ireland, while commending efforts to accelerate applications.

Like many Senators in the wake of the Brexit referendum, I have been inundated with inquiries from Irish people abroad and many people living in Northern Ireland about the application process for Irish passports and trying to guarantee their EU rights. Much of this issue has been addressed. I commend the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan, for accelerating the process and allocating more staff to meet demand, but I have also received a number of inquiries from British people who have been living in Ireland for many years and who believe their status is threatened by the United Kingdom's possible withdrawal from the European Union in the next two and a half years. Many of them have been living in Ireland for some time, are married to Irish citizens and entitled to apply for Irish citizenship, but they are finding the costs prohibitive. We have one of the costliest citizenship application processes in the European Union. Will the Leader invite the Tánaiste to come to the House to discuss whether she will review the process in view of the fact that the more than 300,000 British citizens living in Ireland have found themselves in a different situation?

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