Moving to Ireland from the UK

lmartin

Hey there,

I'm Liam, a Brit currently living in the South West of the UK. I'm part-Irish (hence the name) and have lots of family in Co. Kildare. I come over quite frequently and love it.

I'm thinking of moving over... not necessarily permanently but I've always wanted to move over. I'm lucky in that I could potentially bring my job with me and work remotely quite easily. I am a co-director of a company here that is already doing business with Ireland and so my being based there would help me grow that.

Do you know how the prices compare living in Ireland to living in the UK? I do not necessarily want to live in Dublin as I guess prices there are significantly higher than elsewhere, so looking around where my family are in the Kildare area / Naas / Newbridge. Would probably prefer something a tad rural but with a nice pub nearby :-) as I'm fond of the Guinness.

Can anyone advise what I might be looking at for a small house or flat as a monthly rental? What sort of costs would I be looking at for Utilities? Electricity / Broadband / Phone / Gas (if available or otherwise?).

I have a company car so would need to check what the maximum length of time I could use it in Ireland would be before I need to register / tax / insure it in Ireland directly. What does a litre of Diesel cost right now?

Sorry for kind of thinking out loud but this is the first step of my research. Any comments anyone has would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Liam

Ken.

I live in newbridge,

Rents for 1-2 bed flats range from €400-€800 per month. check out www.daft.ie

Upc service most of the town for broadband,tv and phone http://www.upc.ie will give you prices on stuff as packages or individually.

Also sky is available for tv.

I'm with esb for electricity and there ok for prices. My bill is about €180 per 2 months. http://www.esb.ie

Don't have gas where i am but other parts of the town do.

Diesel at the moment is about €1.44 per liter which is roughly £1.27GBP

The problem with living rural in Ireland even only a few miles outside a big town is that you have to downgrade your isp choices. For example. I'm on upc's 30mb package for €42 euro per month. A freind who lives a few miles outside town is paying eircom €49 for 10mb speed cause thats whats in his area and yet another friend in a different area who didn't want to pay to get a landline run out is paying €35 per month for 3mb with a crappy provider.

lmartin

Thanks for your response :-).

As I work a lot from home I would need a decent internet connection, although 10MB would be bearable I do get 45MB in Exeter right now. Does it depend which ISP is serving your area then? So there is no competition in each area?

I should also have asked about healthcare. We take it for granted here, but over there do you need, like, Medical Insurance or similar?

Ken.

There is competion in area's. I was just giving you the best as i see it. I'd say its upc are best followed by eircom then imagine broadband . After that youve got the mobile networks that use dongles(vodaphone,02,meteor,3), then there's some smaller providers that are crap.

As for healthcare. You can visit a hospital here for a €100 euro fee but if there's something seriously wrong with you the waiting lists can be long. Lot's of people have private health insurance. V.H.I and quinn are the providers that come to mind. They have websites if you wanna price some of them up.

fuddy1

You'd find the healthcare pretty much the same as NHS when it comes to hospitals. Where you would find the difference is Dentist and GP services. Its not free here like in UK. You pay between 35 and 60 euro for a GP visit depending on where you are.......more rural areas are usually much cheaper than cities. The good thing is that you dont usually have to make an appointment a week or more in advance like in UK. Here you can usually just walk into GP practice and then just sit and wait your turn......I've never made a GP appointment in advance in my life!! You need to make dental appointments in advance, although they will usually see people in a lot of pain on the day. Dentist services can be expensive.

lmartin

Thanks :-).

It's looking almost certain now I'll be making the move in September. Many people I speak to tell me I'm silly given the reputation the Irish economy has (over here certainly). Is it really so much worse than our own still failing economy though? I don't think so.

I wasn't so sure about healthcare as we kind of take the NHS for granted here. Real dental work is still paid for but subsidised. But both GP visits and any hospital treatment required would be free. It's very fair I think. And indeed I'll be paying my Irish taxes like anyone else by moving all my affairs with me. I rarely need to see a GP but some people over here do see them for the most minor of ailments because there is no charge. How about prescriptions for any medication that may be required?

I'm going to be starting an Irish company to operate our Irish business from rather than do it via our UK company as we do now. I'm struggling to open both personal and business accounts in advance of my move though. And they want a utility bill (how do I pay a utility without a bank account!). So that could be interesting.

fuddy1

:(hard to believe but yes the economy is worse here than in the UK, and it may continue to get worse before it gets better!! The light at the end of the tunnel seems very far away. If the USA dont sort out their default threat problems then we'll have even bigger problems!!
But your not coming here looking for work, your bringing it with you so thats different........

Yep we pay lots in taxes and health levys but still pay for GP services! Any prescription you may need filled in a pharmacy you will also need to pay for. There is a scheme called drugs payment scheme which means no one should pay more than 100euro a month for medications, this helps those with chronic illness like asthma or hypertension that may be on expensive medications which need to be bought every month.

As far as i know its almost impossible to open a bank account without a utility bill!!! A bill pay mobile phone or broadband bill will do if you wont be paying electricty or gas in your name and need proof of address.

undertheduvet

lmartin wrote: »

Thanks :-).

It's looking almost certain now I'll be making the move in September. Many people I speak to tell me I'm silly given the reputation the Irish economy has (over here certainly). Is it really so much worse than our own still failing economy though? I don't think so.

I wasn't so sure about healthcare as we kind of take the NHS for granted here. Real dental work is still paid for but subsidised. But both GP visits and any hospital treatment required would be free. It's very fair I think. And indeed I'll be paying my Irish taxes like anyone else by moving all my affairs with me. I rarely need to see a GP but some people over here do see them for the most minor of ailments because there is no charge. How about prescriptions for any medication that may be required?

I'm going to be starting an Irish company to operate our Irish business from rather than do it via our UK company as we do now. I'm struggling to open both personal and business accounts in advance of my move though. And they want a utility bill (how do I pay a utility without a bank account!). So that could be interesting.

So if you're going to be moving over here in September and you are going to be starting an Irish company to operate your Irish business, does that mean you will be hiring?

lmartin

Not to start with, no... but my intention is to be in the position where I will need to recruit locally within 12 months. I'll keep you posted on my progress :-).

undertheduvet

lmartin wrote: »

Not to start with, no... but my intention is to be in the position where I will need to recruit locally within 12 months. I'll keep you posted on my progress :-).

Sounds good. Best of luck with the move and getting the business up and running.