Potentially returning to Ireland

username2013

Hi All

Myself and my wife are thinking of moving back to Ireland for a period of time (currently in Canada). We would see ourselves living long-term in Canada, but before our son starts school we see an opportunity for a couple of years to live in Ireland. This will enable him to get to know his Irish side of the family and also the Irish culture. I work in IT so I am confident of getting a job in Dublin without too much hassle. However on other aspects of this move I wanted to get some opinions/thoughts from people who may have already done so and hear what they found difficult/surprising/easy/nice/horrible etc.


Here is a list of things that I have come up with that I feel I need to consider before the move:

- housing: More than likely due to work we would need to live either in or very close to Dublin. From looking on Daft, I would expect to be paying 2000 to 2500 for a house in one of the Dublin suburbs. Does this sound right?

- day care: This would be the most difficult thing I think. We don't really have family in Dublin so that's not an option to ease us in. I assume day care/play-school are very difficult to get into in Dublin? We could hire an Au Pair I guess, but I would prefer if my kid was going and interacting with other kids rather than been stuck at home with a minder the whole time.

- medical: I have been living abroad for 10 years so I obviously have not paid any PAYE. Therefore how does the medical system work in Ireland for someone like me returning? Would I need to get private insurance to cover my family?
My son requires an EPI pen due to peanut allergy. In Canada on ohip here in Ontario, these are all paid for and we get them updated as they expire. How would I go about this in Ireland?

- visa for wife: My wife is Canadian and works freelance so she should be able to keep most of her existing clients, however if she did wish to work in Ireland, how do you apply for a spouse work visa?

- car insurance - do any insurance companies in Ireland take into consideration your driving experience abroad?


Any advice on the above list would be much appreciated. Also am I missing anything major?

Thanks

redcup342

username2013 wrote: »

Hi All

Myself and my wife are thinking of moving back to Ireland for a period of time (currently in Canada). We would see ourselves living long-term in Canada, but before our son starts school we see an opportunity for a couple of years to live in Ireland. This will enable him to get to know his Irish side of the family and also the Irish culture. I work in IT so I am confident of getting a job in Dublin without too much hassle. However on other aspects of this move I wanted to get some opinions/thoughts from people who may have already done so and hear what they found difficult/surprising/easy/nice/horrible etc.


Here is a list of things that I have come up with that I feel I need to consider before the move:

- housing: More than likely due to work we would need to live either in or very close to Dublin. From looking on Daft, I would expect to be paying 2000 to 2500 for a house in one of the Dublin suburbs. Does this sound right?

- day care: This would be the most difficult thing I think. We don't really have family in Dublin so that's not an option to ease us in. I assume day care/play-school are very difficult to get into in Dublin? We could hire an Au Pair I guess, but I would prefer if my kid was going and interacting with other kids rather than been stuck at home with a minder the whole time.

- medical: I have been living abroad for 10 years so I obviously have not paid any PAYE. Therefore how does the medical system work in Ireland for someone like me returning? Would I need to get private insurance to cover my family?
My son requires an EPI pen due to peanut allergy. In Canada on ohip here in Ontario, these are all paid for and we get them updated as they expire. How would I go about this in Ireland?

- visa for wife: My wife is Canadian and works freelance so she should be able to keep most of her existing clients, however if she did wish to work in Ireland, how do you apply for a spouse work visa?

- car insurance - do any insurance companies in Ireland take into consideration your driving experience abroad?


Any advice on the above list would be much appreciated. Also am I missing anything major?

Thanks

Around 2500 - 3500 euros per month for a 2 bed house, competition is fierce for accommodation in Dublin at the moment.

Day Care is quiet hard to get into, so much so that people apply for it to get on the waiting list even before the child is born.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/health_system/entitlement_to_public_health_services.html

See under "Establishing ordinary residency"

On the visa topic contact INIS
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/wp07000024

Car Insurance will not accept your NCB from abroad. or at least I am not aware of any company that will accept it in Ireland.

shenanagans

Was listening to the radio a few days ago. This new website was being discussed. Some guy set it up to help those returning to Ireland with issues he faced himself when he moved back. It might help:

https://moving2ireland.com/

Fr Tod Umptious

Hi OP

one word of advice

If you can avoid Dublin do so

There are decent IT hubs in places like Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, and some in smaller areas also.

Obviously Dublin has a lot more jobs but don't rule out regional cities either.

username2013

shenanagans wrote: »

Was listening to the radio a few days ago. This new website was being discussed. Some guy set it up to help those returning to Ireland with issues he faced himself when he moved back. It might help:

https://moving2ireland.com/

Nice one shenanagans!! Haven't had a chance to look too in-depth into it yet, but from a quick look it seems like it has all the info I want! Thanks.

username2013

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Hi OP

one word of advice

If you can avoid Dublin do so

There are decent IT hubs in places like Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, and some in smaller areas also.

Obviously Dublin has a lot more jobs but don't rule out regional cities either.

Thanks Tod, the only one out of those that could be a possibility would be Galway as we wish to be somewhat close to family so our kid can get to know all his cousins/family etc. Plus my wife is Canadian and we think it would be somewhat easier for her to integrate at least initially in a city.

Fr Tod Umptious

username2013 wrote: »

Thanks Tod, the only one out of those that could be a possibility would be Galway as we wish to be somewhat close to family so our kid can get to know all his cousins/family etc. Plus my wife is Canadian and we think it would be somewhat easier for her to integrate at least initially in a city.

Galway is exactly were my wife and I relocated from the USA back in 2002.

It has a decent number of IT jobs but if you are coming from a big city like Vancouver or Toronto you will notice that in reality it's a small IT market

That being said IT is a employees market in Ireland these days so skills are in demand.

Another upside is that it has a motor way all the way to Limerick and Dublin
So the Limerick side of Galway is now only about 45 mins drive to the Galway side of Limerick, and Shannon is on the route

That makes Limerick a viable employment location for someone living on the outskirts of Galway and vice versa, and Shannon (which also is a smaller IT hub) viable for both.

We don't live there any more, we went more rural, but I do hear that traffic in Galway is cronic as is the housing shortage.
So relatively speaking you still have the same issues with traffic and housing as you would in Dublin.

And I've yet to find a North American person who did not like Galway city

username2013

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Galway is exactly were my wife and I relocated from the USA back in 2002.

It has a decent number of IT jobs but if you are coming from a big city like Vancouver or Toronto you will notice that in reality it's a small IT market

That being said IT is a employees market in Ireland these days so skills are in demand.

Another upside is that it has a motor way all the way to Limerick and Dublin
So the Limerick side of Galway is now only about 45 mins drive to the Galway side of Limerick, and Shannon is on the route

That makes Limerick a viable employment location for someone living on the outskirts of Galway and vice versa, and Shannon (which also is a smaller IT hub) viable for both.

We don't live there any more, we went more rural, but I do hear that traffic in Galway is cronic as is the housing shortage.
So relatively speaking you still have the same issues with traffic and housing as you would in Dublin.

And I've yet to find a North American person who did not like Galway city

Yeah, my wife loved Galway when we were there, however it might rain a bit much for her to be there fulltime! Good point regarding traffic and housing. All things considered, Dublin makes more sense for us. How long were you away for Tod? Did you find it tough going back? I'm away 10 years now. My wife lived abroad from Canada for a period of years and she said she found it hard to re-integrate.

Fr Tod Umptious

username2013 wrote: »

Yeah, my wife loved Galway when we were there, however it might rain a bit much for her to be there fulltime! Good point regarding traffic and housing. All things considered, Dublin makes more sense for us. How long were you away for Tod? Did you find it tough going back? I'm away 10 years now. My wife lived abroad from Canada for a period of years and she said she found it hard to re-integrate.

I was in the US for 6 years and came home in 2002 with my then girlfriend, now wife, no kids

We made the decision to avoid Dublin and head for Galway, even though we did think that finding work would be harder

There was a bit of a lull in the IT industry at the time, it was not long after the .com bubble burst and not long after 9/11 which did not help any recovery.

Overall i don't think I found it hard to get back into Irish life, I was a good 6 or 9 months looking for a suitable IT job at the time but once I was up and running in that regard things were great.
The one thing i would do differently though was that we came home in summer, first few days of August, it was not the best time to be job hunting.
It's really a dead time for recruitment, everyone is on holidays, feck all gets done.
Much better to be job hunting in September or January

I had two first impression however
I had far less disposable income than I had in the US, everything seems to be more expensive relative to income, and the tax take seemed to be much higher

The other thing was the difference between employment agencies in the US and Ireland.
In the US they will bend over backward to accommodate you if you are looking for a job, or if you are a contractor with an agency in a job they will constantly be touching base about how you are getting on, is everything ok etc.
In Ireland it was as if the agencies did not give a damn. I recall one situation were I did an interview and the agency never even contacted me one way or another ever again.
I found a huge difference in professionalism and attitude.
An American friend of mine who worked in an agency in the US moved to Ireland for a year and worked in an agency here, she was scathing in her assessment of Irish agencies.

I last did contract work 4 years ago and I found that very little had changed, the contractor is very much third in line of their priorities after themselves and the client.

So if you are dealing with employment agencies be wary and keep pushing them.