Hi @shellbells12 I moved from London to the West of Ireland this summer. We purchased the house a few months before. I also have 2 children, my eldest is autistic with SEN, he’s 4 so will start Junior Infants next year.
It’s been 100% the best decision for our family. In so many ways. Feel free to PM me about anything.
We imported our car, there is lots of paperwork but as long as you have proof of purchase and your insurance docs (most of which are emailed / accessed online anyway) all is fine.
We used a moving company and our stuff came in to the Dublin port. We were reunited with it 6 days after it was picked up.
Child benefit took 8 weeks to come through but was backdated to the day we landed.
Driving licence exchange (you have up to 12 months to action this) took 4 weeks. You can drive in a personal capacity while waiting but if your job requires driving (my DH’s does) you need the physical licence back.
Car insurance (which included breakdown) much cheaper than UK, but road tax was more.
Home insurance a bit more but with no council tax or water rates our cost of running our house here month by month much cheaper.
We found a GP surgery able to take us all on no problem. We also have a full medical card as only my DH is working now we have more financial freedom and our income is under the threshold.