Ireland has one of the best passports in the world.
And we don’t mean that in some kind of weird patriotic way like the Brexiteers who are very proud of their old blue British passports. We mean that according to the latest Henley Passport Index, the Irish passport is one of the best you can have, using their metric of visa-on-arrival travel across the globe.
As far as access goes, Ireland is tied in 7th position (alongside Greece, Belgium and Canada) in terms of how many destinations are available to those holding an Irish passport. This is a drop of one position. Last year, Ireland was tied for 6th.
All three top passports are based in east Asia — Japan, Singapore and South Korea, followed by France and Germany. The Japanese passport allows visa-on-arrival travel to 190 destinations. The Irish passport allows the same to 184 destinations.
Some countries that require additional visa applications for Irish passport holders include: India, Vietnam, Russia, Nigeria and Afghanistan.
According to the index, the passport that provides holders the least access is the Iraqi passport, which provides visa-free travel to just 30 nations. In a similar bracket are passports from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria.
A full breakdown of the Irish passport can be found here.
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