Moving to Ireland from Honduras, Central America

jaavila

Hello Board Members, I congratulate you for this great site of yours but most of all for your great Country and all that it contains, first YOU the people who make it BIG, the culture and of course that marvelous piece of Land in this planet that you have there, I've been reading about Ireland for a while now, but i never deared to subscribe to a forum and make direct questions about specific issues regarding your country.
I have an offer from my company to move to Ireland and work in Dublin 1 Zone (which I'm really considering but a little nervous about), you see I have 3 children (2 Boys of 9 and 13 years old and a daughter 12 years old) they are the biggest reason why my Lovely wife and I are really considering to take the offer and move to your piece of heaven with the intention of never look back and try to settle definetly in Ireland.
I've been making a little research, trying to figure out about schools, expenses, etc. and i think i have an almost clear picture about it, but there are always some things more difficult than others and mine has been trying to figure out a good place to live. We don't pretend to live a Big City life and are more inclined to find a friendly town near Dublin with good transportation options (Maybe something with no more that one Hour commute time) but Very, Very Family Friendly, we are used to be always together and have fun, we would like something very near a beach if possible but with good options for our kids to entertain (The boys play Soccer, my daughter dyes for theather or drama courses and facilities nearby, maybe a Cinema and something like a country club would be wonderful) and also very important for us a Catholic Church. I know maybe I'm too demanding and want everything in one place but had to ask.
We are used to go out a few times during the weekends and eat out or visit places "Always together of course" and even when I've been making my numbers i want to know if in your opinion you think we can keep a little of this custom and spend no more that 500 EUR a month on it.

Thanks for any advise on this matters and best wishes to all.

Coriolanus

€500 will be your disposable income after rent/bills/food etc?

jaavila

Thanks Nevore for answering, this is the budget I've been setting, at least in my mind with a € 100,000 a Year Income, please tell me if i'm not getting crazy on this numbers, all of them are expressed on a monthly base :
Income € 4868
Child Benefit €400 (I'm not sure if we're entitled to this by not being from Ireland but with a Legal Work Permit only)
Total available a month would be €4901
Rent €700
ESB €150
Gas €150
Life Insurance €350
Grocery €800
Petrol €250
Car Insurance €450
Phone Bill €50
Child Care €100 (We are not sure if my DW can work or maybe get a relocation from her company but in case she can we will be needing someone to receive the kids from their coming back from school and to stay with them until we get home, I'm not sure how to manage this because we are used to have someone in the house that is of trust to us, but if needed at least my wife is in de disposition to stay at home at least while we settle on this matter)
Miscellaneous €200
Other €200
With this in mind our monthly Leftover must be €1501 Aprox. a month but we need to at least think about saving for the kids College €1000.
Please advise if I'm letting something aside or if I'm being too conservative on this projection or if simply you think I'm nuts.
Greatly appreciate your guidance.

jack presley

I don't think you'll be able to find childcare for €100. Try adding another 0 to the end.

jaavila

Thanks Jack for your reply.
Could you please explain me a little more about Child Care_.
What doest it means and what includes?, Is this a professional service and this professional goes to your house and stays with the kids while we are away from home ( Maybe 3-4 hours a day) or you have to take the children to some place where they are taken care at the end of school.
I´m sorry for my ignorance but we don´t use this kind of services in my country.
Best Regards.

tricky D

If you are working in Dublin 1, you will probably go to work by train http://www.irishrail.ie (DART is the best train route), tram http://www.luas.ie or bus www.dublinbus.ie. Driving by car often takes too long and parking is hard to find and expensive unless you are very lucky and your employer has parking spaces.

Catholic churches and schools will be no problem at all.

There are lots of beaches, but they often in the areas which are more expensive to live in.

Your rent will be much more than €700, almost 2 times that for a 3 bedroom apartment/house http://www.daft.ie.

€100,000 is very good income in Ireland.

Childcare is very expensive here http://childcare.ie. You see that almost all childcare businesses do not list the prices because they are so expensive. You will probably need after school which is not so expensive but a lot more than €100. This has prices but not for after school http://www.snowdropscreche.com/Fees---Services.html. It will give you an idea of how much more expensive it is here. Childcare at home is very very expensive. However, it is very common for teenage children not to go to childcare after school and go straight home.

College fees are not too expensive here about €2000-€6000 a year if your children get EU status. If they do not get EU status it will be very expensive. I think your children will be OK for EU status. http://www.ucd.ie/registry/adminservices/fees/eu_fees.htm That is for the fees only and that might go up in the next few years.
http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/fees/, http://www.tcd.ie/Treasurers_Office/fees/fees_coursefees.php and http://www.ucd.ie/registry/adminservices/fees/undergraduate.htm They are the big universities. There are many other colleges which have degree courses. Most will have similar fees and EU status arrangements.

Car insurance will be cheaper when you pass your EU driving test. I have 20 years here, no claims and pay around €600 a year. Your non EU licence will make that much more expensive so book a test as soon as you get here.

You will also need to pay for TV cable or satellite ~€50/month. Also TV licence (tax) is €160 a year.

irishguy

I think your figures may be a bit out

Life Insurance €350 Per month? This seems incredibly high try chill.ie for a quote
Grocery €800 - This also seems a bit high. Have a look at tesco.ie , Lidl.ie and aldi.ie
Petrol €250 This also seems a bit high unless you do a good bit of driving (Its about €1.50 per liter)
Car Insurance €450 per month? Mine is only that per year try chill.ie for a quote

Also try this site to see what you will earn after tax. If your married and your wife is not working you get a lot larger tax credit.
http://www.hookhead.com/Tools/tax2011.jsp

Also in regards to child care, you would bring your child to a creche it can cost around €800 per month per child.

Have a look at
www.citizensinformation.ie - Government information
www.daft.ie - Property
www.aib.ie - Bank
www.dublinbus.ie -transport
www.luas.ie -transport
www.dart.ie -transport

jaavila

I am enourmously grateful IrishGuy and Tricky D, your comments and guidance are more than welcomed, I will read every link you sent me and try to make a better work on this numbers.
Best Regards.

The Hill Billy

If your company are moving you here, contact their local HR Department as they may be able to advise you on a lot of your questions.

wonderfulname

jaavila wrote: »

Could you please explain me a little more about Child Care_.
What doest it means and what includes?, Is this a professional service and this professional goes to your house and stays with the kids while we are away from home ( Maybe 3-4 hours a day) or you have to take the children to some place where they are taken care at the end of school.
I´m sorry for my ignorance but we don´t use this kind of services in my country.
Best Regards.

Both are available, I would imagine you would avail of the latter.
Here is some further information on childcare in Ireland. As you can see it is quite vague, without knowing where you will be living its pretty impossible to give you a figure for it. It is possible that your oldest child/children will be able to avail of evening study if they are in secondary school, so that would save substantially on the costs.

As for where you want to live, don't worry about the church, Ireland is a very catholic country, wherever you go there will be a church.
Your boys will be able to play soccer in school, and wherever you choose there should be a local team. Likewise drama clubs have popped up everywhere!
If you want to live by the sea and within an hours commute have a look at places along the dart line, malahide for example sounds like what you are looking for but its a pricey area. You can also look as far south on the line as bray (45min to city centre by dart), that would be cheaper but there's a reason!

Have a look at property on daft.ie and come back to us if you have an area in mind and we can tell you what its like.

jaavila

Thank you so much for your reply Wonderfulname, only to add to my already proved ignorance about your beautiful country, i want to ask something further because I've been following a very sad and worring story in Irish newspapers about 4 kids that seem to have been kidnapped (I Pray to God to send his Angels to protect them) but being eminent our relocation to Ireland, I'm obliged to ask if this kind of situations is somehow occurring frecuently or is just an isolated case, please forgive me if I have been rude asking something like this about your country, but is my duty as a parent to try to know everything about the environment.

Thanks.

wonderfulname

You're a parent, your worries are understandable, however the only reason the story is news is entirely due to the rarity of such events. It seems that the children are fine, they were found yesterday, and also that the person who took them had been entrusted with the children by their mother - so it may be an entirely personal matter, we have yet to find out.

jaavila

Thank God they where found, and thank you wonderfulname for your answer, this gives me a lot more tranquility.

tricky D

This missing children event now appears to be nothing serious as was first thought. The man and woman have been unconditionally released from custody. I reckon they just decided to go away for a few days while the mother was in hospital.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0314/children.html

hmmm

Have you much experience of Europe? I know Brazil & Argentina well, I don't know how similar they are to Honduras - but if I was talking to an Argentinian I'd say:

- Nannies, cleaners etc, they are much more expensive in Ireland. We don't have huge differences in income.
- The crime level is very low compared to Argentina. You don't have to worry about kidnappings etc. Violent crime is low.
- Family, community is important to many Irish people but it is less important than in Arg.
- The Church has hugely declined in importance in recent years. There is not a big community built around Churches any more (except in rural areas).
- Our weather can be very wet - but it isn't usually as cold as other parts of Europe. Unfortunately neither is it particularly warm.
- We love sports, kids will have loads of choice
- You will live an upper middle class lifestyle in Ireland on 100k. You could live like a king on 100k in Argie.
- Eating out is more expensive over here. However, our supermarkets are much better. Kids are generally not brought to restaurants in the evenings.
- Much of Irish social life revolves around the pub. Sad but true.
- You can get a flight to London or Paris for 50 euro
- Try www.daft.ie for accomodation. Areas like Dun Laoghaire or Malahide or Howth may suit if you want to be close to the sea
- Driving is difficult in Dublin. You don't want to be driving to Dublin 1, you will spend hours commuting. You should live somewhere where you can get public transport.
- Oh, middle class people will happily take the bus over here
- Cars are much cheaper to buy than in Argie, but are more expensive to run
- We have lots of golf courses but they are not quite the same as "country clubs".

jaavila

Thank you hmmm for your answers they are really enriching, maybe you can't compare too much Argentina or Brazil to Honduras, yes they are many things that join us (Like The Language of course, Soccer, Religion) but on the other side there are also many different things (Argentina is more wealthy than Honduras, I think in Honduras there are many of us that are still church goers and take our believers role in a more dedicated way and maybe a little more than in Argentina, but this is only my conception for a few talks with Argentinians and not by real knowledge because I've never been there) we don't get too much contact with their culture from here but I know they Love Barbecues "Asados as they call it in Spanish" as we do and well they may be more things in common that I'm not aware of.
I love the idea of taking a bus every day for go to work, as a matter of fact that is one of the good things we can´t do around here anymore because crime rates have raised a lot in the last years and sadly we no longer feel safe in public transportation, but let me ask you this.
I've been looking for communities near the coast as i mentioned at my first post and I found Skerries as a lovely place to live with a family,I know is not too far from Dublin Center (30 km +-) where I'm supposed to be working but my question is, given that everybody mentioned that driving there may be a little complicated and you can easily get caught by a bumper to bumper traffic, Do the public Buses run on a different an reserved line for them and this way they don't get the impact from the traffic?, I know the Train does but I'm trying to figure this out for the buses.
I'm sorry for my ignorance on this but now I'm curious about it and had to ask.

Regards.

partyndbs

greystones, killiney or blackrock

jaavila

Thank You Partyndbs I'll try to take a look at them also.

mvt

Find it hard to believe that a company willing to transfer you with a salary of 100,000 euro is not going to provide a relocation package which would sort out a lot of your questions.
And if you really are going to make such a move would it not make more sense to come on your own to get a feel for life here.
If its not what you thought then at least you would not have uprooted your family for nothing.
Also could you ask if your local church could have any way of putting you in touch with a church in an area of Dublin that you are interested in?

jaavila

Thank you mvt for your reply, the problem is that it was my decission to apply for the relocation under the knowledge that the company is not offering any assistance "At least" economical for the transfer, this is only a change of country because the income is the same that I receive right now where I am, maybe I'm being too desperate to find information before the final arrengements and maybe there is some kind of support for this matters once the moment is the appropiate, however i think the best way to really get a feel about things is to do it this way and receive feedback from people who live a normal life on a daily bases and not packed from a employer-employee perspective.
About the idea of moving alone first, is definetly out of my mind, I have a very strong bond with my family and I know that with the help of God we'll be good anywhere as long as we remain together, so no, I would not dare to do this on a trial-error way, it's just a matter to have the right attitude and push aside any obstacle.
As for the idea to search assistance or information from our church i tell you sincerely it never crossed my mind and it really is a great idea.

Thank you for the information.

PolishVisitor

My advise to you don't move to Ireland or you will regret it for many reasons,I am not bashing Ireland but just expressing my private opinion nothing personal.
I spent some time in Dublin and I regret it , it is not what I thougt would be and it is not quite Europe.
Here are my points against moving to Ireland:

Pub culture , seems like people socialize and care about getting drunk
Not much to do besides Pub
Poor shopping, not many choices and high prices for everything
Poor food choices
Impossible to integrate into Irish society, it is not US, Canada, Australia
Growing Xenophobia
NO JOBS
Poorly paid jobs
Abusive employers and little benefits
If you make overy 32.800 Government will tax you at 52% in total
Growing prices for everything
Dirty City,diry streets
Narrow sidewalks
Terrible weather (COLD WIND RAIN COLD WIND RAIN)
Expensive air travel to EU average ticket 200 euro not a 50
Growing Crime
Hard to understand Irish English
Poor Infrastructure
Substandard Apartments
That would be what I remember ,truly I dont find it interesting and worth spending time even natives run away and historically did so
You decide

Mervin J Minky

I think what you are saying is very harsh PolishVisitor and everything you said in the post above could describe lots of other places in Europe. Plus it is especially harsh coming from a person obviously coming from Poland as all of your points that you make are much worse in nearly every city in Poland, no to mention the fact that people only earn approx €300 per month in Poland which is approx €3,600 per year. You would get double/treble that doing nothing in Ireland. So stop complaining. If you don't like this country then leave it!

Regards,
A Lithuanian national living in Ireland for 5 years.

Raekwon

PolishVisitor wrote: »

Who says so? lithuanian ? you are polish, russian took lithuania from poland it is our land not your governments

OP do not let one small minded Pole put you off coming to Ireland, although it is going through a very tough period it is still a very nice place to live and to raise a family. Plus the recession will not last forever!

Mervin J Minky

PolishVisitor wrote: »

Who says so? lithuanian ? you are polish, russian took lithuania from poland it is our land not your governments

What has it got to do with people wanting to move to Ireland for

wonderfulname

PolishVisitor wrote: »

Pub culture , seems like people socialize and care about getting drunk
Not much to do besides Pub
Poor shopping, not many choices and high prices for everything
Poor food choices
Impossible to integrate into Irish society, it is not US, Canada, Australia
Growing Xenophobia
NO JOBS
Poorly paid jobs
Abusive employers and little benefits
If you make overy 32.800 Government will tax you at 52% in total
Growing prices for everything
Dirty City,diry streets
Narrow sidewalks
Terrible weather (COLD WIND RAIN COLD WIND RAIN)
Expensive air travel to EU average ticket 200 euro not a 50
Growing Crime
Hard to understand Irish English
Poor Infrastructure
Substandard Apartments
That would be what I remember ,truly I dont find it interesting and worth spending time even natives run away and historically did so
You decide

There is much to do aside from just going to the pub, I lead a very healthy social life and very little of it involves alcohol.
As for shopping, once you get to know Dublin you can find whatever you want.
People complain too much about prices, when you compare them to income they are quite good.
There's a great choice of food, again, if you know where to go. Every nationality is catered for, and there is a full range of quality. Sure, if you're cheap and lazy its pretty hard to find food, but thats you're fault, not the states.
Its easy to integrate into Irish society, if you want to.
Xenophobia is only growing in relation to people who abuse the welfare system.
Jaavila has a job lined up.
There are fantastic benefits in Ireland, in fact, they are too good.
Employers cannot legally be abusive, if yours truly are then report them.
I am sure jaavila is aware of our generous tax rates, after all he has researched the country to quite a degree.
The increase in price recently is exceptionally small.
The cleanliness of the city depends on what you are comparing it to, from my own experience I can say its cleaner than much of Europe and the air quality is fantastic for a city.
Nothing wrong with the footpaths, its the cycle lane that are narrow, Jaavila, if you do move, don't let your kids cycle to school...
The weather is what it is, if you don't like it, move. Again, I'm sure Jaavila is aware of the level of rainfall experienced in this country.
The price of air travel to Europe varies massively, off peak you can get a ticket for as little as 20e including tax, it can however cost upwards of 200e if you purchase late at peak times.
Crime is indeed growing, however its growing from an incredibly low base line, hence its still pretty low.
You will find that the poster has found it quite easy to converse with us so far, regardless of how many Irishisms we employ, anyone I know who moved over could speak fluently as the Irish do within months, even if they had little English to begin with, maybe you're just not so good with languages? Or maybe you're not sociable enough?
Yes the infrastructure is poor across the country, but its fine in and around Dublin.
Yes you can wind up renting substandard accommodation, I'm living in some right now, but my income is less than that on social welfare, if it were that or higher it would be pretty bloody hard to get myself into anywhere bad, and on the income Jaavila expects to receive he can live somewhere quite comfortable indeed.

Sure Irish people emigrate, but for some reason people like you immigrate, why haven't you run away if its so bad?

Jaavila, don't listen to this guy, its a lovely country if you give it the chance.

hmmm

jaavila wrote: »

because the income is the same that I receive right now where I am

What?! You can have a far far higher standard of living in Honduras on that salary. Far higher.

Kintarō Hattori

OP to answer your questions, yes buses have their own lanes on the road and so can whizz into town when traffic is bumper to bumper. Also Skerries is a lovely little town with great access to the city, nice country roads and a lovely beach.

jaavila

Thank you all for your answers it's really amazing what we can't achieve or mislead by our own bad experiences, for example Polishvisitor may have had an awful experience on your lovely country, that I pray and hope not to go thru with my own family.
Indeed wonderfulname all the things you mentioned i have already cherished them in my heart and hope in the name of God that also come true for us, if as you said everything reach the end we are hoping.
As for your statement hmmm, sadly my answer is yes, right now I'm in the top of the net income in Honduras but that leads more to problems here than to live a good quality of life, we come from a highly rapidly spiral of crime in the country, we have kidnaping's almost every week and the aim of this kind of crimes as usual is the more unprotected, in mi case my children are always in danger whenever they are out of home, they are still very young (13 year the bigger) and not to fond to go to parties and go out with friends "NOT YET" but what's going to happend when they reach the 16-18 when all they want is to go out, me and my wife could not bear that kind of worry for the rest of our lifes, and sadly things dont look better ahead, that is why i don't care too much if i loose power of consumption because I'm aiming to peace of mind and log happy living.
Regards.

Dudess

To be fair PolishVisitor is only relaying their own experience/opinion (I'm anything but one of those members here who is always bashing this country btw - and I don't agree with everything PV says). OP, I don't know whether Ireland is wonderful - and you'll find the cultural change quite colossal :pac: and as for the weather...! :eek:
But you may love it too - hard to know. Just don't assume it's fantastic because of what you read - it's down to what you make of it too, like anywhere. Best wishes with the move though, and hope things turn out great.

Raekwon

But in fairness take every single negative point that PolishVisitor listed and compare each one to his country. Ireland compares much more favourable on every single point apart from the weather, although you could argue that even though our summers don't compare to Poland, we get much milder winter conditions.

OP Ireland is a very beautiful country and you should be able to live a very enjoyable life over here considering your salary. One word of advice though, don't judge Ireland solely on your experience of Dublin, try to explore other parts of the country with your family when you do arrive here to get a better feel of the place and to see more of our culture and heritage. I'm sure that you won't be disappointed.

PolishVisitor

I don't give a flying fcuk about poland but in many ways you eat dust comparing to poland, and here is why
Weather , far better you have no weather you have suicidal condition
Shopping, go and visit poland any average city has more shopping malls not to mention capital warsaw, on the opposite you have 2 STREETS, GRAFTON AND HENRY, your shopping is a joke
Not to mention we have much more choices in every area here it is a joke 3 kinds of ketchup ??? and I can list more and more, and you know very well cause most of you travel,I assume reality bites and you cant swallow it.
Taxes ,no country in EU has such high taxes as Ireland
Landscape and things to do, it is nothing to do here, people have no hobbies except get drunk.
Hard to get around
Hard to get to EU, tickets are expensive just taxes add up to 50 euro on each ticket
There arent many jobs there but some are popping out
Women in poland I wont compare Ireland, someone said something about UK women recently on the news same applies here )))
Food here, YUCK
Xenophobia
RipOFF everywhere
Debt, this country comparing to poland is broke ,yes it is just gonna get only worst
Good luck with living in your illusion, I would rather live in portugal than here even greece sounds more fun, at least they have sun and good food not to mention welcoming people without overblown ego

Raekwon wrote: »

But in fairness take every single negative point that PolishVisitor listed and compare each one to his country. Ireland compares much more favourable on every single point apart from the weather, although you could argue that even though our summers don't compare to Poland, we get much milder winter conditions.

OP Ireland is a very beautiful country and you should be able to live a very enjoyable life over here considering your salary. One word of advice though, don't judge Ireland solely on your experience of Dublin, try to explore other parts of the country with your family when you do arrive here to get a better feel of the place and to see more of our culture and heritage. I'm sure that you won't be disappointed.