A total of 485,000 Irish passports were issued last year, the highest annual figure ever.
This represents an increase of nearly three-quarters in demand for passports over the past five years.
Approximately 400,000 were issued through the two main passport offices in Dublin and Cork, while the remainder were processed by Irish missions abroad.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, around 70 per cent of citizens now apply for their papers using the Passport Express system.
