Are there any cons to applying for an Irish passport?

[battenburg100]

Hi
With Brexit so close now, I'm in a dilemma whether or not to apply for an Irish passport. I'm hesitant as although I can see the benefits of having one, alongside my British passport, there are bound to be negatives too - but I'm not sure what they may be, so I would be grateful for any mumsnetters feedback....

Background info - I was born in the UK and have a British passport - my mum was born in Northern Ireland. My sister who lives in France was worried about her employment status there, so applied for and received her Irish passport. She now has dual nationality which has pleased her French employers, but what could be the consequences, particularly negative ones, of me having both types of passport living here in the UK?

None? The only problem I see is if you move to say Australia or somewhere and want to gain citizenship then you’ll have to give your Irish or UK passport up

Absolutely none. Get one!

Why would there be downsides ?!

No disadvantages that I can see apart from cost, which is minimal.

Why would she have to give it up if she moved to Australia?? Australians can have dual/triple citizenship

The only downside would be if you in the future move to a job with a particular security clearance, they don’t like dual nationality and it throws up issues.

Some countries tax their citizens on their world wide income.

Some countries tax their citizens on their world wide income.

Some countries do. Ireland isn't one of them.

Err, none?

*Some countries tax their citizens on their world wide income.

Some countries do. Ireland isn't one of them.*

Sorry just to clarify this I presumed you were talking about Irish citizens who are non resident. They will not pay tax in Ireland.

People resident in Ireland are taxed on their worldwide income.

DH is an Irish Dual national and my DC are Irish triple nationals - an Irish passport is great. The Irish embassy staff are lovely people and the passport is far cheaper than the British one. No downside at all, but I suspect they're a little overwhelmed right now with applications from the UK.

With Brexit so close now, I'm in a dilemma whether or not to apply for an Irish passport

Don't forget you have to apply to have your birth registered on the Foreign Births Register first. That confirms your Irish citizenship, then you can apply for a passport.

@sambob unless they are outside of Ireland for over 163 days or something like that (can’t remember the number of days

Mr Elbows needs mod security clearance for his job and has been told that if he applies for dual nationality he will lose his job. Which is a bit annoying.

Quinions - that only applies for second generation descent, not first generation which the OP is. OP’s mum was born in the North so OP is already an Irish citizen, she can apply for the passport straight away.

I qualified through my DF, but my DCs have to have their birth registered before they can get a passport. The passport cost only about e90, but the registration costs nearer e290 and takes about six months even before you get the passport. All in, about £1,000 for all of us. Probably still worth it.

the passport is far cheaper than the British one

85 euros (80 + 5) is about the same as a British passport.

How often do you travel to Europe op? Not much point if you holiday in Devon every year.

I suppose you would have to make sure that both passports were up to date when you travel - if you let your British passport expire/forget to take it with you and you are the victim of a serious accident/ incident, then you might have to rely on the Irish consular for assistance rather than the British one??

Mr Elbows needs mod security clearance for his job and has been told that if he applies for dual nationality he will lose his job. Which is a bit annoying

Does that include Irish? It's usually a special case but perhaps not for MOD.

The only other downside I can think of (not with Irish) is that if you have sons and apply for another citizenship for them they might have to do national service (Poland?).

I believe that it is taking about a year at the moment to get Irish citizenship as they are pretty overwhelmed.

Yep. Grandpa Elbows is Irish. Mr Elbows and three others were told if they applied for dual Irish/British nationality they would lose their jobs. Annoying because its something which may benefit the Mini Elbows but I'm not sure if we can apply for them without Mr Elbows doing it first.

There is is some fearmongering around about having a second passport, but in the case of Ireland there is nothing to be fearful of. If you cna afford it then go for it If you can't then do it when you can - Brexit won't affect your status or application.

The most amusing one was a poster on here who was warning others that they could be called for national service and have to fight againt Britain at the Irish border in the Irish army in a no-deal scenario.
(Never going to happen - putting aside that Ireland is a neutral country so would never be going to war, the 'Troubles' were always an internal UK civil war.)

Elbows - if the grandpa in question was born on the island of Ireland then your DH is already Irish, passport or no. The mini elbows can become Irish by applying to join the foreign births register, without their father having an Irish passport. You’ll just need all the relevant birth and marriage certificates etc. It’s very easy to do.

If the mini elbows were to have children they would not be able to pass on the citizenship unless they had already joined the foreign births register before the kids were born. If that makes sense. So in theory it is possible to continue to pass it down the generations but in practice it means making sure each generation (after the first, ie your DH) is registered before they beget the next generation. If you see what I mean.

Mini elbows are eligible if they have an Irish grandparent. They have to register as foreign births first, but they can get an Irish passport whether their father does or not.

You certainly can hold passports for Ireland and Australia at the same time! My son is entitled to both, and a U.K. one too, as will I be when my aussie citizenship is sorted. There are no disadvantages, everyone born in NI can hold both U.K. and Irish passports.

So my mother is Irish, I think she lied about her DOB only know she grew up in Kilkenny. How do I prove she is Irish.

Also can her grand children apply for Irish passports?

@flying

I would challenge that for a medium security job as it is nonsense.

If you look on eg GCHQs web site they make it clear that dual citizenship is NOT a barrier to employment provided one of the citizenships is British. And all their jobs are high security. Same applies for the Foreign Office etc.

It might be a problem if the dual citizenship was Russian or Chinese but Irish would not be a factor.

Ici