Moving to Ireland - help!

[Vic820331]

My partner and I are looking to relocate to Ireland in coming months with our two kids (5 & 1). He is Irish and I have grown up in London. We really want a change of lifestyle for our two boys but also for us and are really excited at the prospect (we love Ireland and visit fairly regularly)

We don’t know exactly where we will be located yet - we are looking around Kilkenny but would look to rent first and property isn’t that easy to find atm it seems - especially as we are still located in the uk so can’t react as quickly to viewings etc. So I have a couple of questions:

did others who have moved go over and then find somewhere to live? We are wondering if using air bnb or the like for a month might be sensible while we find something longer term? Has anyone done this?

if so, how did this work with schools etc? My eldest is 5 and would be starting year 1 in September in the uk. He doesn’t turn 6 until May and I think it’s different in that he doesn’t legally have to attend until 6 in ireland instead of 5 in uk. Is this right? I really don’t want him to miss school as he loves it but also recognise we might need to locate ourselves more permanently before we sort a school.

I will also want to find a job but finding this tricky from uk. Anyone have experience of this at all or will this be much easier when I am there in person? (I have moved countries before to Australia and that was my experience).

lastly, how have others found the move? I’ve seen lots of threads about cost of living but we find living in the suburbs of London pretty expensive. Is this something we should be worried about?

thanks so much in advance for any advice!

Actually getting your child sorted with school will be probably the easiest bit so don't panic about that

I don't mean to sound overly negative but this is entirely dependent on your area. Many areas are over-subscribed re schools & you simply may not get a place - especially so close to the start of the school year.

Once you have a sense of where you will live, I would then start calling schools & checking possibilities.

Don't take it for granted a school place is easy to get.

Renting not as hard as it’s made out if you have contacts through family or friends. My sister recently moved home from Spain with her family and she was so worried. She had her choice of 4 places in the end in Cork city. Definitely a case of using any contacts you have to hear of places coming available before they go up on daft

I agree re contacts. A family member of mine moved back to Clare & heard of rental properties on the grapevine too BUT they were all very expensive. They could afford it so it was fine.

Perhaps your ILs would be able to help with contacts?

Hello @Vic820331 I live in Kilkenny, know the schools and areas well and my kids go to school here also. I also work in Marketing so maybe DM me with your Q and a bit abt your skills and I may be able to help. Kilkenny is super!

We moved over from the U.K about 6 years ago, my OH is Irish.
Killkenny and Waterford are great areas, Waterford was recently voted best place to live. The local airport is due for a runway extension and upgrade so hopefully Ryanair will be flying there soon.
On the housing front properties are fairly scarce especially in sought after smaller towns and rurally.
Expect to pay a fairly high rent, i'd suggest trying to initially locate where you hope to remain so that your DC can settle in schools and nursery. Bring over some references, back statements etc. to prove your credentials for renting.
As mentioned Daft.ie is the property hunting site.
If you bring over vehicles these will need to be re-registered, no VRT tax is payable if you have owned them prior to moving, you can't resell them for a certain period afterwards either.
Since Brexit you will need to convert you Driving license to an Irish one. An easy paperwork task, you will need a medical if you want to retain catagories a over the normal car/van ones. Towing trailers etc.
Car insurance is significantly higher, bring evidence of No Claims.
You will need to apply for a Public Services Card. Similar to NI card this is required for access to all government services, tax and benefits.
Child allowance is paid to all regardless of income which is nice.
Health services are not free like NHS except to children below certain ages. Expect to pay €60 for GP visit and €100 for arriving at A&E.
Get some health insurance, your employment might offer this as part of your package.
If you have sold a property in the U.K be aware that currency fluctuations can seriously alter the value of GBP savings. Currency Direct and other similar services a offer better rates for bigger transfers.
Cost of living is higher in Ireland but wages are higher too. Aldi and Lidl can reduce costs but food is more expensive but better quality.
In all retail sectors there is less competition so price and range are affected.
Ireland does not have council tax but you will need to pay for bin collections and your DC books and stationery.
I must admit the quality of life is better and to live in the beautiful location near the sea would be vastly more expensive.
The Irish are charming, friendly and still have the time to chat. Don't be surprised to find the road blocked as two passing motorists catch up. We have been made very welcome in our community.

Agree with @saleorbouy too. Waterford is super and lovely place to live.

@Thethreecs there are loads of WFH jobs in Ireland so what you are saying is simply not true

i don’t know anyone who works in an office full time anymore most go in once or twice a week

my husband is fully Remote - I work in an office once a week. My sister goes in once a month!

So we are aiming for Kilkenny because of the lifestyle. Totally appreciate its very different to London (although we live in the outskirts atm) and that is exactly what we are looking for. My one request to my partner was not to move from London to Dublin - I adore Dublin (my family were Dubliners!) but we are craving a less busy life than the one we have at the moment and we are hoping we can perhaps find that a little further out. This is partly why we want to rent to begin with, because there is only one way to know for sure if our feeling about Kilkenny is right. I do feel like sometimes you have to try these things.

I defo hear you all on accommodation and we will definitely try and secure something before we move. I don’t want to be staying for any extended period of time with the in-laws (they are lovely but I need my space!).

In terms of schools I was hoping this might be a simpler in year transfer than it sounds like it will be. Am starting to feel a little guilty that I might be disrupting his education now… when the main aim of this move was a better life for him and his brother. Absolutely hope this isn’t as complicated as it sounds. I was hoping he might be in a good position given he’s been in full time school since he was just over four years old (which is the legal requirement here). Once we know where we will be staying i guess I can start having these conversations.

We always wanted to move to ireland and knew there would be a lot of moving parts with two children but because of personal reasons the timing kind of dictated itself to us… hoping we can make It work!

thanks for all the advice!

My advice to you apart from all the housing/rental issues is to get childcare for your 1 year old sorted asap! Many crèches won't take under 2s anymore. We moved from one side of Dublin to the other in April and really struggled to find places for our preschoolers age 1 and 3. We did find spots eventually but had to wait 3 months for them to be able to attend. Also it's pretty expensive! A childminder might be the better option but they can also be hard to find.

Will defo get into the childcare as soon as we can - we actually had a similar experience here as waiting lists were so long my youngest would be starting school in some cases!

And yes, paperwork. I hate it, but know I’ll have to do it! I have read quite a bit about health insurance so I will definitely check this out too.

I also live in kilkenny, if you can give a hint of whether your planning on living in the city or a town etc might be able to help more! Even if you want to pm me!

Might be worth following some of the local pages as rentals are sometimes put up on them.

In terms of schools I was hoping this might be a simpler in year transfer than it sounds like it will be.

It's not complicated. It's just that you need to do your homework - you need to decide on your area, research the schools & contact them for availability. It really depends on the area / school as to whether he can get a place.

If you are moving to DH's home place, try the school he went to as you'll have a connection.

Is your husband's job in Kilkenny?

We won’t be in his home town and he isn’t working in Kilkenny. It’s just the preferred place we would be based so schools will all be new to us. It will of course be a priority when we find somewhere to live and we will check before we dive in too quickly.

I would suggest making sure you're not based too far from where he works. You mentioned going 'outside Dublin', just wants to check you don't view Kilkenny in that bracket.

Is the home town nearby? Locating close to where he grew up is a good idea as you'll have family support & a better chance of getting a house / school.

I think you've a good bit more research to do realistically. It's great you've got the offers of help from posters living in Kilkenny.

What I meant was I didn’t want to move to dublin, I wasnt specifically viewing Kilkenny as outside dublin. We have done the journey many times so think we have a fairly good idea. Perhaps that’s how it sounded.

And we are very sure we don’t want to move to his home town, even if this is easier.

My initial thread wasn’t really asking whether we were locating ourselves in the right place tbh as I think we are sure it is there or thereabouts, it was asking about the school system etc as thought best to hear first hand (I have researched online). We are both very familiar with Dublin. My partner lived there for many years. And he’s also worked (and lived) in many different parts of Ireland before he moved to the uk so we are also pretty familiar with distances between cities and where he will be working etc, hence why we are choosing that location. His job is also not static so basing a location purely on his job would not be sensible as in a year or so he could be working in a different location altogether - who knows. I think we would be much better off finding somewhere we want to settle as a family and me finding a job more locally as my job will be more static.

My initial thread wasn’t really asking whether we were locating ourselves in the right place tbh as I think we are sure it is there or thereabouts, it was asking about the school system

Actually you asked for advice about moving over & finding somewhere to live as your first question.

You've got lots of good advice I hope. I've answered the school system question for you too, it's not complicated but that doesn't mean it'll be necessarily straight-forward to get a place. (But it might be).

Hope you've found the responses useful - you're v lucky that 2 posters live in Kilkenny & are willing to help you further.

Maybe its more popular in the cities but in small towns, there's definitely more available off daft than on it.
I found my last rental (own a house now thankfully) from talking to a professional related to the building industry in the town.
Also, responded to a house for rent ad in a local supermarket notice board, but had the first house arranged at that stage so didn't need it. This was two years ago, its definitely still a thing around here.
Another way that worked for friends was to ask in a local hotel. They need to find accommodation for their staff all the time so know which letting agents to go to. They are often properties available which are not advertised for different reasons.

Agree that schools outside the bigger urban areas are easier to get a place in. I'd ring when schools are back in the next couple of weeks and ask to speak to the head. you'd often get a good feeling of the place from that conversation, the vibe of the school will reverb from them!

Yes, I asked how people found properties but I dont think I was questioning location as such. Responses have been useful although lots of differing opinions about how easy it is or when the right time is to do things so I guess we will see. Lots of conflicting ideas about whether it is best to get involved in the local community to find accommodation etc vs planning everything before we leave but seems to be pretty dependent on location.

hopefully those in Kilkenny are able to give good advice about that! Thanks for all the tips!

This is good to know. I definitely think my partner will spend some of the next couple of months there trying to sort this in person and I will then be able to get onto schools when we know more! Good to hear that not all hope is lost with regards to rentals! Thank you!

The school offices will be all back working now if you were to ring around schools in the area you are interested in moving to. So you could get an idea of available places

In terms of school places, smaller country schools will probably be more likely to have places available and be happy to take on a child mid year than bigger schools.
In Dublin, my child was on the waiting list of a popular local school from 4 months old. He was #125 or similar on the list. The school took 2 classes of 25 iirc. So you can see in that instance they would not be taking on a random child at any point, even if a space became available by someone leaving they would offer it too the rest of the list.
(The list was not an enrollment list, it was an expression of interest list)
In contrast, I know of a country school falling in numbers that was trying to bus Ukrainians in from a few villages away to boost falling numbers. They'd snap your hand off for a mid year extra pupil!

Just come back from week in Carlow, not too far from Kilkenny. My niece has just graduated and while job market seems good for her (engineer), housing market is awful. She is struggling to find a house to rent. Nothing in Carlow county. Good luck with the move. Kilkenny is pleasant enough. Can’t advise much on any of your questions as it’s DH who is from ROI.

This is a great place to house hunt - I hope you made it back to Ireland. I loved with my children in 2016. Best thing I ever did!

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