Reasons for UK citizen to not get an Irish passport?

Question

The United Kingdom has opted to leave the European Union, this may make travelling and visiting my holiday home abroad more difficult, or even stop me from working abroad in the future.

My mother is about about to get an Irish passport, as her mother (my grandmother) is Irish. After the paperwork is complete I can also apply for an Irish passport.

Question: What negative things may happen if we get a second passport? I do not want to have to fight in the army, face any tax issues on my savings, nor would I want to lose any of my inheritance money if my mother were to pass on.

Additional info: I am 22, a British citizen with a UK passport, I was born in UK along with both parents. I spend almost all my time within UK, except maybe a short holiday every few years. Currently I am a university student, but in future I will just work an ordinary 9 to 5 job, I do not believe I will operate a business or invest in anything more serious then a few Funds. This also applies to my mother. All our banking is within UK.

Answer 1

Summary

Currently there are no real negatives to gaining Irish Citizenship, other than:

• The cost and hassle of registration on the foreign births register.
• The Cost of your first passport.
• Renewal fees for your passport renewals on expiry every 10 years.

Background

According to The Wikipedia article on The Irish Diaspora there are about 3 million people living outside of Ireland with Irish citizenship.

Additionally, the Irish Times indicates that up to 6 million people in Britain could be eligible for Irish Citizenship. (The actual number may be lower.)

Given that Ireland has only 4.7 million residents in the country, they have great infrastructure for supporting citizens abroad.

To answer your specific questions:

• There has never been conscription to the Irish military, other than when enforced by the British. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Ireland for more history.
• You will only need to register for tax if you're resident/ordinarily resident/domiciled in Ireland. http://irishabroad.com/Irish-World/Expats/Moving-to-Ireland/Working/taxation/ has more information.
• If you do have to register for tax in Ireland, it has an extensive network of Tax Treaties that would stop double taxation: http://www.revenue.ie/en/practitioner/law/tax-treaties.html has more information.

Areas which may need investigation

• I'm unsure of the implications for inheritance tax. I expect that since neither you nor your family would be resident in Ireland it wouldn't be relevant.
• You might have some complications if you buy Irish Funds, stocks, property, or open bank accounts there. They could have specific rules that cover your situation. However, if you are "just a citizen" but have no other real relationship with the financial/property system you should not have to register with the Irish tax system at all.