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Living overseas

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Original poster

Moving to Ireland

138 replies

HardieHa · 05/08/2023 13:10

I live just outside of the M25 in the south east and will inherit some money soon. It is not enough to buy here so I will have to move either north or to Ireland. I am leaning towards Ireland as I feel they will recover faster and it would be nice to get my EU passport back! BUT, what do I need to consider?

I have been a single sahm of 2 autistic children for almost 20 years so will be looking at minimum wage entry level jobs no matter where I go. I have 2 teens, 18 and 19. Only one wants to move with me no matter where I go but I am hoping to persuade them both to come. Ideally I'd like to buy a 3 bedroom house so both can live with me but I cannot afford a 3 bedroom in a city/large town.

Should I risk buying in a semi-rural area? I have been told that I may not be accepted in rural areas due to being obviously English so I may not be able to find work. Or should I buy a 2 bedroom flat in a city? Where it won't be such an issue to be accepted and find a job but my other child can't come and join us?

OP posts:
Abhannmor · 05/08/2023 15:43

BlueLiquid · 05/08/2023 13:29

Have you looked at the Irish property market? Housing is exceptionally expensive and not readily available in many areas.

I am leaning towards Ireland as I feel they will recover faster

Recover from what? It’s the country with the second highest GDP in the world, according to the IMF.

and it would be nice to get my EU passport back!

Living in Ireland won’t get you an Irish passport.

Have you ever been to Ireland? You don’t seem to know all that much about the country.

She will have an EU passport after 5 years residence. €1100 mind. Might get help with autistic dependent. Post on Craicnet for sure.

Anotherdayanotherdollar · 05/08/2023 16:03

Yes, you pay to see a GP here, unless you have a full medical card (covers GP visits, most medical expenses and some other other expenses), or a GP only, or are a child under 6yrs. But I can usually see a GP on a day of my choosing. And I pay less to see my GP than I do to see my hairdresser. Although I require her services much more frequently.

Check out www.welfare.ie to see if you and your children would be entitled to benefits

Department of Social Protection

http://www.welfare.ie

Reachingforthestar · 05/08/2023 16:13

OP you mentioned affordability in the areas of Dublin you are looking are. Would you mind saying where these areas are? There are most certainly affordable properties in Dublin. However they are cheaper for a reason.......and that is usually social deprivation.

AnSolas · 05/08/2023 16:35

Reachingforthestar · 05/08/2023 16:13

OP you mentioned affordability in the areas of Dublin you are looking are. Would you mind saying where these areas are? There are most certainly affordable properties in Dublin. However they are cheaper for a reason.......and that is usually social deprivation.

Or pyrite in the estate.

Plus OP a lot of the new house estates are not "taken over" by the LA so there is a annual charge on these estates.

Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:24

Apprenticenomore · 05/08/2023 15:28

What do you work as @HardieHa?
Are your dc finished school? Will they be attending 3rd level education? what supports do they actually need?
I think it’s swings and roundabouts when it comes to England vs Ireland
done things are more expensive but not everything is. There’s no council tax here or water rates, but slightly more tax paid on earnings.
I think food prices are pretty similar these days depending on where you shop.

They have finished school, they may decide to go into higher education, I hope so. Currently they are working. They don't need any support outside what any young person does now things are so expensive!

I was told food was more expensive but it looks similar now I agree. Income tax is 20% up to 40k, then 40% above that. Good to know about council tax and water rates, thanks.

OP posts:
Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:28

Marblessolveeverything · 05/08/2023 15:24

A practical matter would be getting a statement of recognition for your qualifications.

Here leaving cert, A levels would be required. To be honest there is very few jobs here without a degree required, have you a professional area? Brexit has impacted on some qualifications - sporadic but things like fork lift qualifications need to be Eu now etc.

Is it worse no but most things are a bit different. So it will add an extra challenge to each activity, property transactions, Irish law, setting up bank accounts etc.

Job wise depends on sector what area are you in ?

As I said in my OP, I'll be looking at minimum wage, entry level jobs. I have no qualifications. Sector wise I'm in unemployed.

OP posts:
Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:29

Maybebaby12345 · 05/08/2023 15:25

I live in Ireland. It has the highest cost of living in europe. Public transport isn't great outside of the bigger cities. Its schooling system is out dated and whilst there are some great reasons to live here, I couldn't not point these out

So living in Dublin with adult 'children' seems fine then, thanks.

OP posts:
Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:31

Marblessolveeverything · 05/08/2023 15:33

@Maybebaby12345 interesting comment on the education, our local school has a lot of families from UK and they are always complimentary and grateful to not have to navigate the academies and the rigid uniform requirements.

I would say it is very dependent on where in the country you are. And level of education.

I am reading the op as having 3rd level aged family - sadly if they have learning challenges they are unlikely to secure or thrive. Third level is starting to become more inclusive but it is early days.

No learning challenges.

OP posts:
Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:33

romdowa · 05/08/2023 15:36

My husband moved to Ireland 2 years ago with me , I'm irish and he's English and he loves it. He'd never go back to the UK despite how expensive things are here, we have a better standard of living, our area is far safer than where we were living and people are friendlier. We were 2 years in the UK Midlands and barely got to know anyone. My husband walks down the street here and people say hello to him. Dublin is different though. Bit rougher and far less friendly . Loads of other places that are worth considering

That's funny, when I've asked elsewhere they've suggested Dublin. Originally I was looking at Cork or Limerick, then maybe near Donegal for the larger properties.

OP posts:
BiscuitsandPuffin · 05/08/2023 17:37

Bad plan OP. We moved and had to come back to the UK 18 months later. Couldn't get any jobs. Very very few were going. We had to sell our house at a loss and leave the area we had fallen in love with and return to SE England because that's where the jobs are.
Affordable is utterly relative and we couldn't get into Dublin from the get-go. The cheapest houses look fine but they usually go to property developers and 9 times out of 10 estate agents won't even let you look at the houses when you phone (whether that's the English accent or what they do with everyone IDK). They were genuinely surprised we'd even want a viewing, people just buy them so quickly.
But it sounds like you've already made your mind up so maybe, like us, this is one mistake you have to make for yourself.

Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:38

AnSolas · 05/08/2023 16:35

Or pyrite in the estate.

Plus OP a lot of the new house estates are not "taken over" by the LA so there is a annual charge on these estates.

Show quote history

Ah, thanks. I was told by someone that pyrite was only a problem in Donegal, even after showing them a house with it in County Mayo! I'll avoid anything built between 1980 and 2010 that's for sure!

I have lived on rough estates for the past 20 years in England, I can't imagine they're that much worse in Ireland but I'm happy to be corrected on that!

OP posts:
BiscuitsandPuffin · 05/08/2023 17:43

HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:38

Ah, thanks. I was told by someone that pyrite was only a problem in Donegal, even after showing them a house with it in County Mayo! I'll avoid anything built between 1980 and 2010 that's for sure!

I have lived on rough estates for the past 20 years in England, I can't imagine they're that much worse in Ireland but I'm happy to be corrected on that!

Show quote history

Pyrite isn't a problem in Donegal. Mica is the problem in Donegal. Basically East coast is pyrite and West coast is mica, they're finding it all the way down to Limerick now.

romdowa · 05/08/2023 17:45

HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:33

That's funny, when I've asked elsewhere they've suggested Dublin. Originally I was looking at Cork or Limerick, then maybe near Donegal for the larger properties.

Show quote history

Personally I wouldn't go near Dublin or any city here really. I live in a seaside town about 40 minutes from a city and its great. Close enough to get what you need but also far enough away .

Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:45

BiscuitsandPuffin · 05/08/2023 17:37

Bad plan OP. We moved and had to come back to the UK 18 months later. Couldn't get any jobs. Very very few were going. We had to sell our house at a loss and leave the area we had fallen in love with and return to SE England because that's where the jobs are.
Affordable is utterly relative and we couldn't get into Dublin from the get-go. The cheapest houses look fine but they usually go to property developers and 9 times out of 10 estate agents won't even let you look at the houses when you phone (whether that's the English accent or what they do with everyone IDK). They were genuinely surprised we'd even want a viewing, people just buy them so quickly.
But it sounds like you've already made your mind up so maybe, like us, this is one mistake you have to make for yourself.

I'm sorry to hear that. Where did you go? What sort of jobs were you looking at? I've seen plenty of minimum wage jobs available in all areas of Ireland.. I can continue to claim UK unemployment benefits there from what I've seen so I don't see how I'll be worse off than here.

I do appreciate hearing about your experience though, it will help me make up my mind. I've yet to hear more than the occasional positive about going there so I guess we'll have to stick will moving up north!

OP posts:
Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:47

romdowa · 05/08/2023 17:45

Personally I wouldn't go near Dublin or any city here really. I live in a seaside town about 40 minutes from a city and its great. Close enough to get what you need but also far enough away .

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In all honesty, that would be my dream but when I've been asking elsewhere online I've been told not to do it and I shouldn't bother even trying outside of Dublin! It seems I can't win!

OP posts:
Nannyamc · 05/08/2023 17:48

Post on reddit Ireland. Lots of information available. Best of luck.

Original poster
HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:53

Nannyamc · 05/08/2023 17:48

Post on reddit Ireland. Lots of information available. Best of luck.

I have, they were even more negative than here about rural areas and said I should stick to larger towns and cities, that's why I'm now looking at smaller places.

OP posts:
Gigi606 · 05/08/2023 18:06

Unless you’re a high earner, or would expect to get a high earning job, I would not recommend moving to Dublin. Of course it’s possible to manage but it is a capital city. Property is notoriously expensive and it’s a very nuanced market. Health insurance, transport, food etc is all noticeably more expensive. Ireland is a beautiful country and a great place to live - I lived there for 8 years and we never had any issues being English. However there are a lot of things to consider if you are at all short of money (or will ever be). Cars are very expensive as is car insurance. Any infrastructure services are relatively sparse out of Dublin. There is very little motorway so travelling short distances can take longer then we would be used to. Dublin transport is famously bad. By comparison to the UK trade work is expensive e.g. plumbing, electricians. Property is taxed by value. There is no council tax but you pay for bins. You pay for A&E, you pay for the GP and dentist. Any extra social support is means tested including medical card. Tax can be complicated. There’s generally a lot more paperwork in Ireland v UK - this can be time consuming and is just not what we’re used to. Ireland is not without its own social and political challenges, you just don’t hear about them in the UK - I’d recommend reading the Irish papers for a few weeks. You’ll need to factor in travelling back to the UK which is not always straightforward if you have to get everyone on a flight or take a 3.5 hr ferry. I feel you could get some peace and quiet more easily and probably more affordable long-term by moving somewhere semi-rural in the UK.

Reachingforthestar · 05/08/2023 18:14

I have lived on rough estates for the past 20 years in England, I can't imagine they're that much worse in Ireland but I'm happy to be corrected on that!

Where are you looking at in Dublin?

Dublin can be a great place to live

BiscuitsandPuffin · 05/08/2023 18:16

We looked at any jobs going. North West. Technically 20 mins from Letterkenny but traffic in Letterkenny is managed so badly sometimes it took an hour. We chose there as near family. DH and I are both qualified/experienced teachers (I specialised in pupil referral units in the UK) and also have web dev and marketing skills but the problem we came up against was we couldn't get Irish minimum wage jobs as these wanted a particular "type" of person, and we couldn't get UK WFH jobs as these wanted you to be based in the UK.

Before we finally left, DH even went for supermarket jobs and got nowhere at the interviews. As well as sales, marketing, copywriting, food service and shop jobs (all things I have experience in), I went for care jobs as I was a carer to both my parents for over 15 years but over there this is meaningless, you need a specific (expensive) qualification to work in care. I tried for jobs as far out as Sligo, Derry and Omagh and got nothing.

The last straw for me was that while technically you should be able to move your benefits, we were disallowed on a technicality and I fell into a situation with DC2 where Ireland wouldn't pay maternity allowance because they said I had to get it from the UK but the UK wouldn't pay maternity allowance because they said I was eligible to get it in Ireland (which I was by then, but Ireland don't follow their own rules with official stuff half the time and they invented extra rules to "disallow" it). They did the same with child benefit. At one point I was sobbing on the phone to them begging them to follow their own rules because I couldn't feed my children.

We definitely didn't just go "oh no I can't get a job in squid keeping we'd better waste another €10k on conveyancing and moving fees and throw away our lives here, take our kids away from their friends and leave our beautiful home." We seriously tried everything. But despite living in a reasonable sized town, we were too rural to get jobs and until we got jobs we couldn't buy somewhere where we could get jobs (and forget about renting with the Irish rental crisis). Total catch 22.

When we first moved there, we were WFH self-employed and didn't need jobs to support us (and we bought our house outright) but covid came and destroyed our livelihoods and we couldn't get them back afterwards. We're definitely not shit employees or people with bad attitudes etc, when we came back to the UK we just walked straight into very good jobs in SE England and we both had several offers to choose from (which felt nice after all that rejection in Ireland).

Good luck, but it really doesn't work the way it looks like it does on paper.

I think if I could do it all again, I'd stay in Northern Ireland where we were for 18 months before we moved to "the south". There are reasonably priced houses around Belfast (Newtownards and Bangor are great areas and there are a fair few other English around too), the culture in Ulster is decent, the people are good, it's generally safe (much safer than the news would have you think), you can get most major retailers to deliver to you (unlike in Ireland) and the beaches are just incredible because they get so few tourists compared to GB.

I'd return to NI in a heartbeat.

Reachingforthestar · 05/08/2023 18:19

.. apologies. I pressed send too soon.

Dublin can be a great place to live if you have money. There are many lovely areas both in North and South Dublin.

There are many areas that most people, unless born there, avoid entirely. There are places the buses will not drive to/and delivery drivers won’t go to. You will not want to live in these places.

As you are reluctant to/can’t name areas, what is your ballpark figure you are looking to spend on property?

Auntieobem · 05/08/2023 18:27

Have you considered scotland??

SparkyBlue · 05/08/2023 18:28

On the jobs front as you are English speaking and are legally allowed to work here and are looking for minimum wage jobs you will walk into a job no bother. Being English will not be an issue at all. Personally I'd look at other cities and towns and not Dublin. If you were in the Limerick or Ennis or general mid west area you'd be close enough to Shannon airport to fly to England and it would be easy for your children to fly over when they wanted. Sourcing accommodation will be your big issue

Badlands1 · 05/08/2023 18:28

Definitely look in NI
Property prices much better etc as PPS have said
I think you can still get an EU passport once you've spent the time in any part of Ireland

romdowa · 05/08/2023 18:44

HardieHa · 05/08/2023 17:47

In all honesty, that would be my dream but when I've been asking elsewhere online I've been told not to do it and I shouldn't bother even trying outside of Dublin! It seems I can't win!

Show quote history

It's only jackeens ( people from dublin) replying to you. Ireland has a lot of coast and a lot of it is within driving distance to a city and airport. Shannon and cork Airport do regular flights to the UK . It is a culture shock here though , most towns won't have shops like you are used to in the UK. We've only 2 supermarkets, no DIY store or shops like poundland / home bargains etc . For shops like these you either need to go to the city or order online but we have a good postal system. It might be worth your time having a holiday here in a town, looking around and getting the feel for it before you commit. I'd also visit Dublin and see for yourself if its your kind of place or not