Increase of 5% in number of residency permits issued

The number of residency permits issued by Ireland to non-EU citizens increased by almost 5% last year, to over 38,400.

New EU figures shows that on a per capita basis, Ireland granted the eighth-highest number of permits of the 28 EU member states in 2015.

A total of 38,433 residency permits were granted last year — an increase of 4.6% on 2014 levels.