A RECORD number of more than 700,000 Irish passports have been issued this year.
The Republic's passport office tweeted: "Wow, we have just broken a new record, over 700,000 Passports have been issued so far this year! #RecordBreaker."
The figure marks a rise of around 30,000 on the previous year.
In 2015, around 670,000 Irish passports were issued.
There has been an increase in applications since the UK voted to leave the European Union in June's referendum.