Moving to Ireland - lots of questions

[ThatchersCold]

I’ve massively got the fear about what is going to happen in the near future with Brexit in the U.K.

I have Irish heritage (grandparents) and so am going to apply for an Irish passport. My DM has had an Irish passport for about 20 years and she is putting her house on the market and is thinking about moving to Ireland. I am strongly considering moving there too, but am trying to work out if it would be feasible.

I don’t think my dc would be entitled to Irish passports as my DM was not born there, is that right? If so, what kind of rights would they have to live in Ireland, particularly when they become adults?

My eldest dd is disabled which impacts how much I can work, so I would need to claim benefits. I am self employed but don’t earn that much, so currently receive working tax credits, child tax credits, carers allowance, child benefit, housing benefit and my daughter gets DLA. I’ve no idea what my/her entitlement to welfare would be in Ireland. Because of my daughter’s disability I need to be sure I’d be able to make ends meet.

also any other information about the cost of living, healthcare, employment, schools etc would be useful. My DM is planning to move to somewhere around Wexford so would probably be that area. My dc are 8 and 14. I don’t know if this a bonkers idea or whether I could actually do it. Would be a scary thing to do as I actually really like my life here but I’m so worried about what the future holds here, particularly for the dc.

@AnEPleaseBob

Care to expand? The place is falling apart. Packed waiting rooms, old equipment, midwives and doctors that could spend less than 5 minutes with each woman because they were stretched so thin. No separate EPU facilities so women sitting thinking they were losing their babies where sat beside ladies with 30 week + bumps. Even the toilets were filthy, and management knew it as they had signs posted apologising for the mess.

I’ve experienced both systems with the same pregnancy, and it would be “bullshit” to claim that Ireland’s maternity care is better than the UK’s just because of a bit of national pride.

I think the care in Holles Street depends on what time of the year you deliver. Winter is good, summer is awful.

Even back when I was born (neither today nor yesterday nor even the day before that) my mum was advised not to go near Holles Street. She went to the Rotunda.

Wrt whether to leave England and move to Ireland - if you can, you should. You are very lucky to be able to get an Irish passport.

Once Brexit hits, the NHS will be sold to American healthcare businesses and education will be privatised, with provision for SEN students cut drastically. LA social services will be a distant memory as more and more LAs collapse financially, and prices of food will rise.

Even with all the issues mentioned here, you will be better off in Ireland.

There are several nice market towns in Wexford - Wexford Town itself, Enniscorthy, Ferns, New Ross, Gorey.

Surprised to hear anyone refer badly to Holles st
I'm Irish, I gave birth to my two children there, also delivered my still born son there and an early miscarriage..
The care I received was excellent from 2008 till 2015

dinosaurkisses what was your experience?

Sorry just seen your reply
I think you were very unlucky..
When I was losing my son, I was given a private room on the gynae ward..
mathanxiety My Mam was told to avoid the rotunda

Also sorry! There is most definitely a separate EPU in Holles st
They had a refurb a few years back
I was only there in 2015
I was very impressed how modern the unit was

I'm Northern Irish, but I moved to London after uni, and then to Cork in my 30s, so feel I can do a fair comparison. The NHS isn't great, but its infinitely better than the Irish system! However be very careful about checking what is available for the disabilities you are dealing with. A friend of mine came back from NZ thinking the family support and facilities would be better for her son. They weren't, she moved back to NZ, it was a very expensive mistake. House prices in cities are crazy, rurally less so. Standard of living is high, its definitely more laid back, but it can be difficult to make proper friends, Irish people tend to make their friends at school and don't need any more after that(yes, I know this is an exaggeration but there is an element of truth in it.) The weather is horrible, it rains a lot more than the UK and can be very grey, but that's what makes it green. It is a beautiful country when the sun is out though.

As for the habitual residence thing, have the rules on this changed? Because I have various friends who moved from England to Ireland who were effected by this and unable to claim any benefits for ages, but this was over ten years ago.

Anyway, if I were you I'd do a lot of research. We found it a relatively easy move to make and enjoyed living there, but ultimately the weather and the recession got to us and we moved again.

Since the refurb, I wonder if there is still a lift leading from the delivery floor to the surgical floor that is casually used by food service employees, causing urgent CS patients to wait 15 minutes that they can't necessarily afford, or even if there are still two separate floors, which is a disaster waiting to happen. It doesn't take much imagination to foresee the massive medical problems that might arise with two floors and one lift. Hope the nursing care has improved there too. A woman I know was traumatised by the callousness of the nursing staff.

A good few years ago (early 70s) an aunt of mine had a late second trimester MC and went to Holles Street. Afterwards she asked if the baby - my cousin - was a boy or a girl and was told she didn't need to know.

The Rotunda was great according to my mum. One day she mentioned the warm blanket she had been wrapped in when she was shaking on the bed after delivery, and the woman she was talking to cried because her experience had been very different. Mum was taught what was basically a form of post natal yoga in hospital, and has done the exercises faithfully ever since.

Its 2018 math not the early 70's
When did you last live in Ireland?
Did you give birth to children in Ireland?

@FourFriedChickensDryWhiteToast I'm sorry but this is totally not true. Ireland is a multicultural country and very open and welcoming! And some of us absolutely adore the different English accents - like me

Ireland is a lovely country OP wishing you the best of luck with your move

Many of my friends and relatives have given birth in Ireland - the majority in Holles Street - from the early 2000s to last year. My own DCs were born in the US.

I agree Ireland is very multicultural, in the cities at least. And places like West Cork have loads of blow ins from all over the place. Not so much perhaps in rural communities, much like the UK really.

I think rural Ireland is a good deal different from rural Britain - so many Irish people have relatives living abroad or have themselves lived abroad that they feel connected to the rest of the world to a much greater extent than people do in places where the cycle of emigration and return isn't so well established.

As an example, I have friends in Mayo who lived in the US for about 20 years. He is a contractor who left school after the Leaving Cert, heading straight to the UK at first and then off to the States. He surprised many a Polish workman in the West by speaking in easily understood Polish, which he had picked up while plying his trade among Poles in the US. I have relatives living all over the world and many who have lived abroad and then returned, some to live in fairly remote places.

Oh yes the Irish love their diaspora. And I've never lived in rural UK so can't comment on it. But I know rural Cork very well. There are a lot of other cultures living there and while they are fully accepted and integrated in the community, they will always be thought of as blow ins. Everyone is unless you've lived there for generations! The Irish are a tremendously welcoming people to visitors, but it can be surprisingly difficult to fully integrate completely, as everyone knows everyone else, and ties go back such a long way.

Totally agree that many Irish and rural Irish can be open-minded due to travelling and living abroad. Ireland is thankfully much more diverse than it was years ago but sorry, there is no way I'd describe it as even vaguely multicultural.I think there's a long way to go.

I agree Ireland is very multicultural, in the cities at least. And places like West Cork have loads of blow ins from all over the place.
Your use use the phrase blow in says a lot more about you and rural Ireland than you realise.

@Choli I was thinking this too, particularly 'they will be thought of as blow ins'

The "blow in" thing is probably true outside of cities but of course that's true elsewhere. There's been many a MNer complained about moving to an English village and really struggling to make friends, it's kind of a thing with rural living if you're not originally from there.

I don't know why pps are protesting when people point out that Ireland isn't as diverse. It's not, why on earth would it be ? You're comparing it to somewhere much larger that has benefited from the wealth and population diversity that came with owning half the world!

Ireland is a small island with recent wealth and while it's certainly becoming more diverse, particularly in cities, that's not comparable with London, Manchester, Birmingham etc. There's no reason it would be and while it's hardly a failing of Ireland it's something I'd be conscious of when considering where to live if I wasn't from a white, Christian country ie I would want to live in a city rather than the arse end of Ballygobackwards...

I think history, proximity and speaking the same language results in an expectation that Ireland and the UK should be largely the same but in many ways they're just not. That doesn't make one better or worse overall because preference, priorities and familiarity have a bearing. It does mean people thinking of moving here should do their research, just as they would if moving to any other European country.

Why on earth does referring to blow ins say more about me? I was a blow in myself! As was my husband, because despite all his family being from rural Cork he wasn't born and bred there. And I lived in Cork City for ten years, so not exactly Ballygobackwards! I was called in a blow in to my face many times and I'm Irish fgs(laughingly though, I didn't mind, its not really an insult just a way of thinking).

Sorry guys, dragging things back to maternity care!

@OkPedro Maybe my care was affected by going through the public clinic rather than semi or private (it shouldn’t though...), but the only time I saw anything approaching modern was in the scan unit which was obviously recently refurbed.

I had a bleed at 7 weeks and came in and was told to sit in the waiting room at the public clinic. I was sat with other women and their partners and families who were clearly there for routine 3rd trimester appointments. The staff had done their best to try and offer some privacy by bringing down a 4 ft divider like you would use in an office cubicle to separate two chairs from the rest of the seating area, but it was still grim. Thankfully everything was ok for us, but at every appointment afterwards there would be a poor woman sat on those chairs with a printed out sign saying “Please leave vacant- seats reserved for Early Pregnancy Emergency” stuck above her head. Again, I don’t know if it was because it was the free clinic, but it didn’t offer a lot of dignity.

The staff were always lovely, but it was obvious they were rushed off their feet. They just didn’t have time to talk about things taken for granted like birth options, birth plans etc. No additional classes for the likes of hypnobirthing were offered. No MLU, no water birth options, no home-from-Home units. I don’t know if these things are available to those with insurance, but they weren’t to me.

I know it’s a Victorian building and management are trying to balance investing in the hospital whilst knowing that the new site is due to be built in the next few years, but the public clinic is a long long way behind the equivalent in the UK.

Your use use the phrase blow in says a lot more about you and rural Ireland than you realise

No it doesn't, because you have misunderstood that as a negative term when it is not.

I know it’s a Victorian building and management are trying to balance investing in the hospital whilst knowing that the new site is due to be built in the next few years, but the public clinic is a long long way behind the equivalent in the UK

Since you described my experience in the UK, you couldn't be more wrong.

Grand so @AnEPleaseBob

And I had the opposite in Ireland, I had MLU, water birth, individual appts with almost no waiting, a named midwife I could call. Separate waiting room and scan room for EPU, and a side room for those getting bad news.
Not even in Dublin. Far superior care to when I had a baby in the UK.

As an Irish person, reading these posts on an UK hosted site, I feel we're not exactly selling the best of Ireland.

My advice OP is to check out www.myhome.ie or www.daft.ie to get an approximate view of how expensive houses are in the area you're thinking of moving to.
Then if you have any intention of finding a job when you're over here, check out some local businesses on line to see what is available. I think there is a site called www.monster.ie that does situations vacant.
Others have posted links to the Citizens Advice website that will help with what you can avail of when you're in Ireland.
If you drive, your UK driving license will cover you until such time as you get an International one or transfer to an Irish one. If you're looking to buy a car, I would advise getting one in the UK and bringing it with you. It'll be cheaper to do this and re-register the car with Irish plates than to buy it new here.
I would suggest reporting the opening thread and getting this moved to Craicnet too as there are more Irish in that area of MN who can advise you.

Best of luck!