Over 26 thousand passports issued in Meath last year
Applications for passports from Irish citizens living outside the State have jumped by almost 35%, from 200,609 to 270,077 by the end of 2025.
Although applications rose from outside of the State, overall passport applications fell by 12% last year from 1,061,629 to 933,121.
These figures were obtained by TG4’s current affairs programme 7LÁ from the Department of Foreign Affairs under the Freedom of Information Act.
Although county-specific figures do not include all county-related applications, because not all applicants complete the county field on the application.
Passports issued for specific countries include:
Meath: 26,395.
Westmeath: 10,550.
Offaly: 8,809.
Galway: 31,138.
Cavan: 9,087.
Mayo: 14,932.
Monaghan: 7,206.
Some other interesting statistics found in this information from the Department of Foreign Affairs include: 5,222 damaged passports, 32,230 lost passports, and 2,712 stolen passports; most of these replacements were issued in 2025.
As well as this, 32 passports were revoked due to fraud, with just 39 applicants being refused a passport across the year.
On the number of passports issued, the Department of Foreign Affairs said 2025 marked the five-year anniversary of the introduction of COVID-19 travel restrictions, which had an impact on the demand for passports in 2020.
As children’s passports are valid for five years, this led to reduced applications for child renewal passports in 2025.