Potential move to Dublin - please help!

[Dublinormovinghome]

My DH and I are both English & have been living abroad in Europe for over a decade and now have 3 young kids (8, 4 & 2). We’ve been talking about moving home (to England) for a while
now.

During my DH job hunt he has been headhunted for a job in Dublin. It isn’t something we’d have considered because the job hunt has all about moving home BUT..: it would be a dream job for DH, could be a career-defining move, would be a great package etc.

So I would love to hear anything and everything about Dublin…. Places to live, schools, housing market, cost of living, what does a family of 5 realistically need to earn to live a comfortable. I am really trying to get my head around potentially moving our family somewhere we’d never considered before!

Thank you so much x

The housing situation is dire. So you need tons of money to throw at that. Depending on what you want you could go more rural and your husband could commute. If he had some work from home days you could even consider living in the North of Ireland and you just wouldn’t need as much to live on.

The housing market is very difficult here. I'm not sure if your intention is to buy a property, or rent in the short term, but housing is in very short supply. So houses often sell for considerably more than the asking price. And rents are astronomical.

If money is no object, then I would look along the coastal areas of Dublin. There are some lovely seaside villages in Dublin. Is your husband's job in the city centre? If so, I would look for somewhere along the Dart line, so he could take the Dart to work. Traffic is horrendous in Dublin, especially at peak times. daft.ie is the best website for searching for homes (buying or renting).

It's very difficult to say exactly how much you would need to earn to live comfortably, because your biggest cost is likely to be your mortgage or your rent. Income tax (PAYE) for single people is charged at 20% up to €44k and 40% on anything you earn above €44k. We also pay PRSI (4% of income). Cost of living surveys rate us very high compared to the rest of Europe.

We don't pay Council tax here, but we pay a property tax and we pay waste charges (private firms run the waste collection services).

You will have to factor in healthcare costs. We don't have free healthcare here. So, either you pay as you go, or you take out a health insurance policy to cover you and your family. A visit to a GP costs approx. €60 (I think I might have paid slightly more last time I went). You have to pay for all prescriptions up to a max. of €80 per family per month. If you turn up at A&E without a GP referral, you will be charged €100. You can claim back a small % of these costs from Revenue.

Our school system consists of primary school and then secondary school. Most children start school at the age of 5 (approx.). They spend eight years in primary school and then five or six years in secondary school. Most children finish school at the age of 18 or 19.

We have state exams in our third year of secondary school (the Junior Certificate) and in our final year of secondary school (the Leaving Certificate). Entry to university is mostly determined by the points you achieve in your Leaving Certificate (the "points race"). Gaeilge (the Irish language) is a compulsory subject up to Leaving Certificate level.

If you have a scroll through this board, you will come across lots of threads about moving to Ireland. They might help you to decide.

Regarding school, there are also two free years of early childhood preschool for children about 3 and 4 years of age (varies slightly depending on when the birthdays fall). This is for 3 hours a day term-time.
https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-children-disability-and-equality/publications/early-childhood-care-and-education-programme-ecce/

I forgot to say that Child Benefit is a universal payment here. It's not means tested. So you would be eligible for monthly payments of €140 for each child.

Also, all children aged under 8 are entitled to a GP visit card. This means they will be seen free by their GP (assuming the GP participates in the scheme). However, they will be subject to payments for prescriptions and hospital charges.

Excellent posts from others, especially @Taytocrisps — I’m not going to add more on logistics, but just going to ask how much time you’ve spent in Ireland. English people often don’t consider cultural differences sufficiently before moving here because they assume it’s much the same as home, when it’s really not in many ways.

Dublin is a great place to live, despite the many challenges like housing and cost of living. However there are lots of people in good jobs with good packages, so housing in nice areas is very expensive and little choice. How good is this job? And will you work? If it's like VP in big tech or pharma - great. And make sure he gets a relocation package with a long period of accomodation included.
But if it's more junior and you're not planning to work yourself you may struggle with the cost of housing. Lots of people in middle management good jobs are in a couple where both are earning.
It's less pricey than London for food and shopping but more expensive than anywhere else in the UK.
Primary education is free and excellent. There are a lot more subsidies in recent years on pre school childcare but it can be hard to get places.
Depending on where you are in Dublin you may have to go private for secondary education, but there are many good public schools too (just not places for everyone).
Traffic is shocking so you want to set yourself up to have a good commute/school journey. Outside the city Dublin is basically a series of villages in suburbs, some nicer than others. Along the coast (north and south), or along the N11, or inland to Dundrum and Rathfarnham areas would be the best. I don't know the Northside as well so others can chime in. Out to Bray and Wicklow and north Wicklow also nice.
Buf if your husband is based in Sandyford you can't live in Clontarf, for example, the commute will be awful.
Ideally you would live in the area your kids go to school/crèche/playschool. There are loads of local clubs and activities in each area and they'll have a very active social life, easy to get to, walk to school, etc.
Dublin is generally very safe, you're close to the sea and the mountains, have the benefits of big city (concerts, shops, well connected airport), but will likely live in a small village/town and get to know people. It's very international and despite the far right getting noisy on social media, people are very welcoming to migrants.
Healthcare is mixed in that there are delays getting into the public service but once you're on care is excellent. I assume his package will include private healthcare for you all. I think it's better than the NHS, when I see people complaining about wait times here. Our public system is good but slow to get into, but you can skip the queue with private healthcare which is not prohibitively expensive.

I also agree that Ireland is not a little version of Britain. The culture is different here. So if you don't know what it's like here you may hate it. Could your husband take the job, and you guys spend a summer here for example, but don't give up you old home. Join the GAA summer camps, explore Dublin, meet the banks to talk mortgages, etc. Absolute worst case could your husband commute? E.g. work Tues- Thurs in Dublin and Fri- Mon back home with you.

She's been living in a different European country for the last ten years, so will probably be noticing the difference between that culture and Ireland rather than England and Ireland

I was going to ask the same thing.
You know that the Irish language is a core feature of the education system here? You can get an exemption if the kids move here after the age of eleven or have learning disabilities but other than that, there’s no escaping it.
They learn history in secondary school from an Irish standpoint, so there is a fairly big focus on how we gained our independence. They will also learn things about the famine etc that I can’t imagine there would be a focus on in the English curriculum.
Most of the schools are still Catholic run. The non denominational schools can be very hard to get into and they don’t give priority to non catholics (not assuming you are, just in case. Our child is not baptised as we are not practicing and we have found it quite difficult in school).
Also, I hesitate to say this last part, but if you do move here, be prepared to face some hostility because you’re English. I really really hope that you wouldn’t but I would say based on experience that you would be likely to come up against a few negative comments etc. Again, I really hope not, but I just want to be straight with you.

You don’t need to be Catholic to get into a Catholic school, just to be clear on that. Selection on the basis of religion is not allowed unless it’s a minority religion school, which Catholic schools are not. Just in case that’s a concern.
And most of the Catholic schools are run by lay staff so they’re Catholic ‘lite’ in a sense. I think lots of Irish people are ‘culturally Catholic’ rather than being very religious now, a thing I think can be misunderstood about Ireland. And many more opt out of religion completely now.

That said, the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation are still prepared for in Catholic ethos primarily schools and take up a lot of time in second class (aged 8) and in Fifth or Sixth class (aged 11 or 12). You can opt out of course, but it means the children might be reading a book or something while the others prepare, as a friend’s kids were. Luckily they love reading and really enjoyed the break from lessons, but others might find it more difficult.

Thank you. I had heard this before and the limited research I’ve done so far. We are currently living in another country where housing is a real issue and is one of the things I find difficult here, so that is good to know. I think we would live a bit further out - would that help with housing do you think?

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this all out, it’s really so helpful.

DH company would initially help us find somewhere to rent in the short time and then I think we would probably look to buy once we’ve settled a bit. Are there any coastal areas you’d recommend? We’re happy to be a bit further out of Dublin (towards the south) so that we can afford a bit more for our money as well if you can recommend any towns etc.

Thank you. I’ve only ever visited Ireland twice. My husband’s dad is Irish but was bought up in England so he has more of an idea than me, spent time in Ireland in the summer growing up etc but still not a lot of experience. Some of my closest friends where we live now happen to be Irish as well, so I would say I have some idea. We’ve lived abroad for years so we’re used to settling in places and cultural differences but to be honest, this is a big part of why I want to move home (England) and put down long term roots close to family

Thank you so much for taking the time
to write this! To be honest this is part of why I’m asking - we dont really know how good this package is compared to what we will need to live comfortably in Ireland. He would earn a base salary of near enough €200k and then bonuses etc on top of that. We would have health insurance for the family included as well. They would help with relocation and initial accommodation as well.

I am a teacher and would also look to work probably when our youngest also starts school.

It is great to hear how good the school system is because this is obviously a big concern of mine moving over with 3 young kids.

I’ll have a look at all the areas you’ve mentioned - this is really useful!

I'm English, but also lived all around the world before settling in Dublin when my two kids were mid-primary age a few years ago.

I can only agree about the housing and traffic situation! And the generally quite high costs of various things. BUT. Life is very easy here - it is safe, people are friendly (I've not encountered any anti-english sentiment myself), yes you pay 65EUR to see the doctor (and full price for prescriptions - with some tax caveats) - but you see the doctor within days, and if you happen to be running 10 mins late they're reasonable about it.

I work through my own limited company which saves an absolute bomb in tax.

When I moved here, I found a secondary school I liked for my son, and worked back from there - although now I live a 30 minute commute from the schools, but a beautiful commute, not a stuck in traffic one! But I work from home, so you may not have that luxury.

I'll also mention that private secondary is much more achievable here than in the UK and other parts of Europe I lived - and the quality of education is excellent.

And yes, Irish is part of the curriculum, but I don't see that as an issue personally (although there is one mum who always comments about how I wouldn't care about that - even though my kids have been at the same school as long as hers!)

It's going to hurt - the revenue's going to take about 85k of that 200k... my ex pays 4k rent in North Dublin (previously paying about 3.5 in South Dublin) for a 4 bed house, so it's going to be highly dependent on what bonuses you get, where you live, and what lifestyle you want - you'll be doing well, but I think you might find your self with less spare cash than you were hoping for.

Thank you. I love what I know of the Irish culture and very aware that it is different from England. We’ve lived abroad for well over a decade and so used to different cultures and would be treating this like any other international move.

We would struggle to stay where we are and my husband start working in Ireland because of work visas so would need to be all or nothing. The more I read and learn about Ireland the more I like the sound of it, it just isn’t what we had expected. Ironically our daughters do play GAA out here where we life because our best friend are Irish! But that’s a great idea to join a summer camp in Ireland as well. We will definitely go over for a few visits in the next month or two if we do decide to go for it.

Thanks so much for the ideas x

Thank you for all of this.
My DH is baptised catholic but the children and I are not. Cultural Catholicism (if that makes sense) is not something I’m opposed to at all and I understand it’s bound to be a bigger part of society than we’ve been used to.

Thank you for your honesty, it’s all really useful in building a picture x

I am a teacher and would also look to work probably when our youngest also starts school.

Do you teach at primary or second level OP?
Teachers in primary schools need to have Irish.

Thank you so much for this. The idea of culturally catholic is no issue for us at all but it’s definitely something to think about. Great to know it’s not an issue with school selection though

This is so interesting - thank you! What made you decide to settle in Ireland? Do you see yourself staying there permanently now? Do you feel ‘at home’?

Do many people use private schools for secondary or do most stick with the local schools do you know?

Id love for the kids to learn Irish as well, they’ve been in the local school system where we live now so they speak that language fluently too so they’re used to different languages and cultures I think.

This sort of thing is exactly why I started this thread - thank you! I have taught secondary in the past but wanted to move to primary and was planning to retrain if and when we moved home to England so really useful to know this wouldn’t be an option in Ireland x

Thank you so much. This is a big concern really because it’s so hard to know how a number on paper will transfer to real life. Time for us to start having a proper look into costs etc!

You’d have to learn Irish for primary teaching all right so it’s not straightforward.
https://www.teachingcouncil.ie/i-am-a-registered-teacher/registration-with-conditions/irish-language-requirement-ilr/

It’s not an issue at second level if you decide to stick with that though.

It is an option in Ireland, I know an English primary teacher currently learning Irish. It is an absolute requirement though because so much of primary education has a cultural learning towards the Irish language. You would possibly need qualifications for secondary anyway so if you want to do primary just focus on the Irish.