Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will. To go off script significantly, I have a lot of sympathy for people with British passports who have been able to live here as Irish citizens for many years. Owing to the common travel area and EU membership, they could gain access to all services. They cannot vote in referendums but they can vote in virtually every other election. For people in that category who want to get an Irish passport, we should make the process as easy, quick and cost-effective as possible because, in many ways, they have essentially committed their lives to living here. There are many thousands of British people who have happily been living in Ireland with a British passport but who will now, all of a sudden, realise that holding an Irish passport is quite different from holding a British one in the context of the relationship with the rest of the European Union. There are differences in respect of business, travel, holidays and other purposes, and in accessing EU services and so on. I want to do some work on this matter with the Department to ensure we can facilitate the transition for those who want to make it. Unfortunately, holding a British passport now means something quite different from holding an Irish passport in that the latter affords all the rights and opportunities associated with being an EU citizen. It is one of the many consequences of Brexit, I am afraid. I would like Ireland to be as welcoming a country as possible for British people living here who want to apply for an Irish passport.