Annie,

That would be DFA2 not CFA2, but I did sign and it shows my real name not the DFA2 name.

DFA2

Signed as well Annie. Good luck!

Hi Annie,

We were hoping to feature your petition on the US-based website IrishCentral.com. If you could send me an email at frances@irishcentral.com it would be greatly appreciated.

All the best,
Frances

I assume they got the permission they were looking for because it showed up in the IrishCentral email a few days ago.

Saw the article on there (IC). I read some of the comments too. As to be expected, there is a mixture of support, for and against a change being made too allow people to retire. Whatever happens, they should at least make a change to so people know what to expect. It should be clear whether or not people can retire to Ireland, and under what conditions. This business of giving someone permission to remain for 12 months, and then they must re-apply is crazy. How could anyone ever be expected to lay down roots?

A long time ago I was told a philosophy of -
Up to 6 months you rent
Up to 3 years you lease
And you buy if it is going to be longer than that.

The numbers will vary, but buying a home and putting down roots requires more certainty than 12 months.

I read the article in the IrishTimes and was happy to see that there are going to be discussions. I was a little disappointed by some of the comments left by a couple of people that seem to think that retirees were going to take jobs from the local (apparently they don't understand the meaning of retired), also mentioned several times that retirees would become a burden on the health care system, but failed to understand that retirees would be required to have personal health insurance just like most of the other immigrates are require to have. Then there were the haters of immigrates and I don't understand them, but they are entitled to an opinion too.

One thing that I wanted to ask has there been many retirees that were under the old stamp 3, I believe, that became dependent on the state for support, and if so why were they not deported, because I believe that even under the Stamp 3 there was a requirement to not become a burden to the state else be deported.

Has there been any surveys on the number of retirees from Non-EU countries that have become burdens to the state, and if so how many were Americans?

Thanks for reading

DFA, do you mean Irish Central? You raise a number of good questions that I think only the Ministry can answer. Maybe we need Fergus O'Dowd or another TD to make a formal request for this data.

I for one was happy with the feedback to the Irish Central article especially if you parse out the bigoted comments. I agree that some people are not well-informed about some of these issues such as jobs and who pays for health care. We need to keep keep trying to correct some of this misinformation.

A few other people are also asking if there is proof that retirees are becoming wards of the State. I can't say for sure if there have been any cases but it's not logical to assume its prevalent or that the benefits of granting residency to retirees has a net negative impact. If anything, I think it should be a strong plus. But people are welcome to share the data and run their own analysis.

I think number of deportees is published but maybe not the exact reasons for their deportation.

I agree that if you do not carry comprehensive health insurance coverage while living in Ireland, that it is grounds for deportation. Someone in Ireland blogged today that even if a person has private insurance, being treated in a public hospital means that the government pays for the health care, especially in the rural areas of Ireland where there are no private hospitals. Does anyone know if this is accurate?

David, I have been making this point as well. It is not enough to lower the financial requirements to levels that are reasonable. We need to ask that retirees be granted a path to permanent residency which I believe they had under Stamp 3. Isn't "retirement" typically considered a permanent status? Also, why would anyone buy a home in Ireland not knowing how long they will be able to live there? Maybe the Ministry does not want foreigners buying property for fear of a housing bubble. But how much of an impact could a few hundred or a even few thousand retirees have on the Irish housing market?> Let's ask a few Irish estate agents what they think.

Deportation is a pretty complex issue. I'm sure if people have become a burden on the state, they can't just be tossed out. There's a lot of due process to take place, and maybe the government is hoping to avoid that. It would be interesting to hear some stats on the topic though.

@hometoireland to answer your question about the govt paying for treatment in public hospitals of people with insurance. That is false. My son broke his arm a couple of weeks after arrival. He was seen in Cork University Hospital, a public hospital. We provided our insurance info, and it was billed accordingly. There are very few all-private facilities, so if that were true, then the insurance companies would be paying out very rarely.