Hungarian Foreign Minister and Defence Minister Micheál Martin said the passport service has issued over 775,000 passports so far in 2024, and current demand forecasts suggest that over a million passports will be issued by the end of the year.

In a statement, the Deputy Prime Minister said virtually all completed passport applications would continue to be processed within or before the stated processing time. He said: “Passport Online is by far the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to apply for a passport.”

The statement said that Passport Online is one of the most innovative passport services in the world. Through Passport Online, citizens also have the opportunity to apply for a passport card valid for travel in the EU, EEA, Switzerland and the UK.

Around 90% of applicants on the island of Ireland now use Passport Online, a service available to all types of applicants, including children applying for their first passport.

The Tánaiste also released figures on applications received by county, showing that the passport service received the most applications from counties Dublin, Cork and Galway.

The Deputy Prime Minister said: “I am immensely proud of the work the Passport Service has done so far this year, particularly in light of the high level of demand over the last few months. Passport Service staff continue to provide an exceptionally high standard of service to Irish citizens and I would like to thank them for their continued hard work.”

“With only a few months left in 2024, the Passport Service expects to be busier than ever before, particularly as forecasts suggest we will issue over a million passports this year.”

AN IRISH PASSPORT costs just €75, but to get one you need to prove you’re eligible by birth, marital status or residency status. You can also get one by becoming an honorary citizen of Ireland – but you need to do something to get it, like managing the international football team (like Jack Charlton) or opening a library (like Alfred Chester Beatty).

The first people to carry a specifically Irish identity card were the members of the delegation to the League of Nations in August 1923. After a long tug-of-war with the British government over the wording, the first Irish passports were issued to the general public in April 1924. They declared their holders to be “citizens of the Irish Free State and the British Commonwealth of Nations”.

The British were not particularly happy about this proclamation, as the Irish were still “British subjects”. The British government instructed its consular and passport officials worldwide that Irish Free State passports would not be recognised unless the holder was described as a “British subject” in the passport.

This created considerable practical difficulties for Irish Free State citizens abroad, as many had to carry British passports in addition to their Irish Free State passports. Few other countries had any difficulties with the new Irish passports.

The situation improved somewhat in the 1930s, when the British authorities introduced a certain degree of practical relaxation, although difficulties arose from time to time.

However, in 1939, following the promulgation of the Irish Constitution in 1937, the Irish government under Éamon De Valera decided to make changes to the passport. Holders were now referred to as “Irish citizens”, which corresponds to the description in modern passports.

When Ireland became a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, all passport irregularities were eliminated.

BEFORE 1924, Those Irish people travelling abroad held British passports, although the first modern British passport did not actually come into existence until 1914, a result of the British Nationality and Status Aliens Act 1914. It consisted of a single page folded eight times and held together with a cardboard cover.

Passports were not required for travel worldwide until after World War I. Nevertheless, they have a very long history.

The oldest surviving “passport” in Britain appeared 599 years ago in an Act of Parliament in 1414, during the reign of Henry V. But compared to what could be described as the world’s first passport, this passport is relatively modern. The first holder of documents of safe passage was, to put it mildly, a subcontractor. According to the Old Testament, Nehemiah was busy building the walls of Jerusalem. To help him progress with this building task, he received letters from the Persian king asking the governors of the lands beyond the Euphrates to grant him safe passage to Judah.

That was about 2,500 years ago, making his pass by far the oldest discovered to date.

2024 passport applications received by counties to date

(Figures courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, An Roinn Gnóthai Eachtracha)