Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 October 2018
100. Deputy Declan Breathnach asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of holders of Irish passports that are residing in the United States of America and are citizens by descent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42833/18]
View answerThe Passport Service does not maintain details of the current residence of passport holders. As outlined in the following table, the Passport Service can provide details of the number of passports issued, since 2008, to Irish citizens who were resident in the USA at the time of the passport application. The table also records the number of applicants since 2018 who were resident in the USA and who claimed citizenship through descent.
Entitlement to Irish citizenship is governed by Irish law and in particular the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, as amended. All applicants must demonstrate an entitlement to Irish citizenship in their passport application.
With reference to citizenship by descent, an individual born abroad is automatically an Irish citizen if one of their parents was an Irish citizen born in Ireland. An individual can also claim citizenship through a grandparent born in Ireland or through a parent who was not born in Ireland but was an Irish citizen at the time of the individual's birth.
|
Year |
Passports issued |
Citizenship by descent |
|
2008 |
13,943 |
7,967 |
|
2009 |
12,579 |
6,924 |
|
2010 |
12,199 |
6,450 |
|
2011 |
11,562 |
6,436 |
|
2012 |
12,045 |
6,619 |
|
2013 |
12,036 |
6,661 |
|
2014 |
12,534 |
7,072 |
|
2015 |
13,484 |
7,328 |
|
2016 |
16,148 |
9,257 |
|
2017 |
19,358 |
11,727 |
|
2018* |
14,579 |
8,900 |
*Jan. 1 to Sep. 30
Please note that the figures given above will include applications made via the online renewal system (where a USA address is indicated) and via the network of Irish diplomatic missions in the USA. Passports issued on foot of an application through a diplomatic mission in the USA will also include a relatively small number of passports issued to Irish citizens resident in the jurisdictions for which the USA mission network has secondary accreditation. At present, these jurisdictions are the Cayman Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, the Turks & Caicos Islands, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Antigua & Barbuda and the U.S. Outlying Minor Islands.
