A RISE in the number of British-born people applying for Irish passports has been attributed to the prospect of the UK leaving the EU in June.
According to the Republic's Department of Foreign Affairs, the number of people born in England, Scotland and Wales applying for Irish passports on the basis of their ancestry has risen steeply in the past year - just as the debate over the UK’s potential withdrawal from the EU has intensified before June’s referendum.
Both Britain and Ireland allow citizens to hold dual citizenship.
Figure obtained by the Guardian reveal that, between 2014 and 2015, the number of adults born in Great Britain applying for their first Irish passport on the basis of having an Irish-born grandparent increased by more than 33 per cent, from 379 to 507.
Meanwhile, applications from those with one or more Irish parent rose by 11 per cent in the same period, from 3,376 to 3,736.
In the previous year, the total applying in both categories had fallen slightly.
The newspaper spoke to several English-born people renewing a lapsed Irish passport who said they was doing so because of Brexit fears, one of whom said he would be also be applying for his daughter who had not previously held one.
The Republic offers automatic citizenship to anyone with an Irish parent, regardless of their place of birth.
Grandchildren of citizens are also entitled to claim a passport once their births have been recorded in the foreign births register and great-grandchildren may also be eligible if their parents had registered by the time of their birth.
Estimates put the number of Britons able to claim Irish-born grandparent at six million.
Among those claiming Irish citizenship are former British prime minister Tony Blair's four children, with his daughter Kathryn even using the passport for travel.
It was revealed in 2009 by Cherie Blair on The Late Late Show, who said they have their Irish passports throughMr Blair's mother Hazel.
"She came from a Protestant family, but from Ireland, and it’s because of her that my four children all have Irish passports," she said.
Anyone born in Northern Ireland has the same rights to claim Irish citizenship as elsewhere in the island, and the region also saw first-time adult applications for Irish passports rise by 14 per cent from 10,672 to 12,159 between 2014 and 2015.
