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<hijack> Kerry, whereabouts in Belfast are you from?

Thanks for excellent advice KK and BRT, might come back for some more if thats OK

Hiya I have yet another query

(DH was very happy about the bins BTW )

Does anyone know of good Sky deals available in Ireland, on TV/Broadband/Sky TV

We have one here which is £26 pre. month which includes free Broadband & landline calls, and kids channels. We pay an extra fiver and get free calls to USA, Ireland, Oz, Canadar and six other European countries. It would be great if something similar is available in Ireland

Thanks again

Hiya I have yet another query

(DH was very happy about the bins BTW )

Does anyone know of good Sky deals available in Ireland, on TV/Broadband/Sky TV

We have one here which is £26 pre. month which includes free Broadband & landline calls, and kids channels. We pay an extra fiver and get free calls to USA, Ireland, Oz, Canadar and six other European countries. It would be great if something similar is available in Ireland

Thanks again

Sky don't do broadband over here, just tv (unfortunately)

If NTL are available where you're moving to they do broadband and digital tv packages but their dig tv isn't great channel wise and their customer service when you need help is pants.

i think there might be a few other companies doing packages but it depends very much on location, alot of things aren't available in the rural areas (like where we are, we have to use a broadband supplier that puts up a dish and it's pricey)

eircom do landline and broadband packages but i don't know what they're like.

afaik there isn't any company that does all three.

Thanks BRT

Oh dear I have another Q (this "lets meet new friends thread has evolved into a "Q&A" session, sorry aout that but its really useful)

My DH wants to buy a car in the next couple of weeks to take over but someone said you have to have owned it for 6 months to take it to Ireland? I have no idea about this and it would really scupper our plans. Can anyone throw any light on this?

Hi.You can take the car over but you have to pay a tax on it.When we took ours we had it for less than 6 months and you pay a percentage of it's value.Irish value,not uK value.Our car[Basic nissan almeira]was valued at a lot more in Ireland than in Uk so cost ALOT!

Think it is called Vehicle Registration Tax[VRT]

Ouch!!!

Thanks for the advice

When some people moved back here they kept their car registered in UK until they had owned it for 6 months (or however long it was supposed to be!) before switching to Irish reg...thus avoiding VRT

You may have more moral scruples than them

It may be more practical to wait and buy a car here?

I bough a new car this year, checked prices north and south...the north was only about 500 euro cheaper than in Donegal (ones exchange rate and VRT were taken into account), so not a great deal cheaper in North. Its worth looking around, my car was several grand more expensive further south/away from Donegal (although this seems to be the case with practically everything you can buy)

Ah yes.We heard tales of that too
Thing is if you buy 2nd hand in South you need to make sure it hasn't been lost down apothole for too long.Some roads are better but loads are in really poor condition which may mean cars have been through the mill abit.

Hey dusty, I'm not too far from Miltown Malbay/ Spanish Point at all. You've picked a beautiful part of the county that's for sure... I'm nearer Kilrush but happy to help. We use Sky for all our telly and dh has never complained (he's English so it's vital to get "proper " telly) it costs ?32 a month but you can get it for twenty euro for the basic package. We use O2 broadband which is excellent that costs twenty a month too.

You can avoid the VRT as knickknack said already, depends what kind of car you want I spose -you could check out the revenue website revenue dot ie. With regard to Healthcare, English people are entitled to free hospital care particularly under E111 rules (there's a reciprocal arrangement in England for the Irish methinks)- but practically speaking, I think at least 50% of the population have private health plans, you could look up vhi dot ie to get a general idea of what it might cost your family. Visits to the doctor here cost 40 or 5O euro, which you can claim tax back on after you spend over 125 in a year...

Keep on asking the questions, I'm happy to help if I can

at losing the car down a pothole. That'll be the Kerry cars then?

SBS yes that's not to far at all and I totally sympathise with your DH on the "proper telly" front! We are planning to bring our TVs with us, having forked out an arm and a leg for them I can't imagine life without them now! Or rather I can't think how to keep the kids quiet for 5 mins without Sky Tv on a big telly!!

Is there a big Tescos in Kilrush then? I wonder of they do deliveries to Miltown Malbay? You can take a girl out of London, but you can never take London (and Tescos online deliveries) out of the Girl. I bet they don't but never mind...

So I am starting to "get it" on the car front, we can keep it registered in the Uk for first 6 months? We will still have a UK address for 1st year until we settle, mainly 'cos I am scared I may lose job due to lack of funding or something so that shouldn't be a problem. I was actually visualising keeping it parked on someone's drive here for 6 months then flying over to collect it !! Hopefully it won't come to that. I might google to do some price comparisons. I did read about all the teachers fleeing to the north on 24 Nov to do their Christmas shopping because of the cheaper prices!

Can we drive it round for 6 months then in Ireland without fear of arrest? Do I have to my driving license after 3 months?

I'm sure we'll get to grips with it all - can't wait to get there..<scratches head>

Sorry that should have read: "Do we have transfer to our driving licenses after 3 months?"

we drove around for several months with UK tax and address I think, cant remember all the details (I can ask english exH next time he's online?). But all depends on whether you are willing to take the risk (or do you want to do things 100% by the book?)
He never changed his licence to irish despite living here for many years, but I changed mine when I knew for definite I would be staying here (I dont know the legalities of that though).

re googling car prices, the price I paid for my new car bore absolutely no resemblance to the price quoted online, it was much much cheaper (by thousands) when taking face to face with a dealer.

don't buy into all the "cheap north" hype. its more of a "way further down south" vs "lots of places north of midlands"
eg prices in Dublin/cork/etc are more expensive then donegal, but donegal is no more expensive than N.Ireland (obviously there are plenty of exceptions, but in general...)
A neighbour bought a top in N.Ireland at the weekend for stg£10 but it was only 8 euro (maybe stg£7 ish)in Donegal!!!

Nah you don't have to change your driving license dusty. Dh only changed his to the Irish one 2 years ago (having used his English one here for 11 years previously) Only 2 days later he got penalty points! There had been a loophole whereby the Gardai couldn't put points on a foreign license even if the person was resident in Ireland. I think that has been sorted by now alas! But applying for an Irish one is dead easy - so no worries on that score. Incidentally, I do know someone who flogs sells very good second hand cars.
Tesco deliver to us but it's from the Ennis store, if you go on the Tesco ie website input your address and they'll tell you if they cover the area...

Aargh about the public servants fleeing North , I was manfully striding up and down the picket line

I don't know if its still the case, but I lost a category from my Uk licence when I switched over as there was no equivalent category here. In fact I think this is why exH didn't change his over. I can't remember what category it was, something along the lines of a large vehicle (bigger than van, smaller than bus)??

KK thanks for the advice ...Well I have three points on my UK license so when I transfer it they will miraculously dissappear and I shall be all squeaky and clean again . I drove for 20 years and then got knabbed TWICE for speeding within 6 weeks . Got three points asnd gor sent on speed awareness training (which was actually very good)

SBS will try Tesco when I get an address the, thanks for the tip. Does your car dealer friend have a website? I could have a peak. We are after a small cheap to run car, as we have a MPV bratmobile but are after a 2nd car to get me to work. Under 45k mileague and a good runner and errm, cheap

Knick Knack you're right, under his English license dh could drive a minibus, which he can't under his Irish license - not a problem unless our little family expands pretty quicky .
Yep dusty try ollie kierce cars dot ie, I think

ah yes the old minibus category, oh how it miss it

Thanks SBS will have a peek at the website

Oooh soz but have another query about cars - what about road tax, can we just continue with Uk one for a few months then, until we get round to registering vehicle in Ireland?

<scratches head>

Bump

Yep, dh tells me that's fine just as long as your English road tax is up to date cos obviously you can't renew it over here. But you will have to register the car, I think you have 3 months grace or so. But then no one will know how long you've been over here driving around unless you're stopped by the Guards on your first day - very unlikely as English cars are very "common" here . But then again you may not fancy a Bonnie and Clyde type adventure...