The number of British citizens who applied for an Irish passport for the first time increased by 42 per cent last year.
The increase continues a trend seen since the Brexit referendum in June 2016 which saw the UK vote to leave its membership of the European Union.
In 2015, 3,644 people who were born in Britain applied for an Irish passport for the first time.
In 2016, there were nearly 13,500 applications, rising to almost 25,000 in 2017 and over 30,000 in 2018.
Last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs said that over 43,000 British people applied for an Irish passport for the first time.
This year the processing of applications has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic but by the end of last month, 22,197 people born in Britain had applied for an Irish passport for the first time in 2020.
