Thanks for starting this thread, Pearse. I'm sure the responses will be of use to many others too as time goes by. Moving back to Ireland from the UK seems to be more and more popular these days.

Hey Tony, @tony2phones , do you have any insight on some of these questions? I plan to answer a couple myself later on today when I get more time, but I figured you'd have some good info to share on some of Pearse's questions.

Where to Start?
You need somewhere to Live, somewhere to work.

For Tax purposes, technically if you work in Ireland for over 36 weeks you become an Irish tax payer but if working for a UK company and being paid into a UK bank? Problem is that Habitual Residence requires that ties with the UK are cut or absolute minimum so that's a complication on other counts.

Your wife is a nurse as is mine but we moved over just in time for the recruitment freeze in the HSE so the 5 new operating suites @ Portiuncula Hospital that should have been a prime employment opportunity for a theatre nurse didn't pan out that way. Chris is currently working in a nursery and worked in a national school as an intern last year. There are nursing opportunities but seeking them out before you move might be wise?

To work in Ireland you need a PPS number which is a simple transfer.

Housing, we bought our cottage to do up with the residue of Chris's UK house sale and some cash that I had. To get a Mortgage in Ireland you need to be employed in Ireland even then its not simple these days. I suppose it depends what you want and how much available funds you have but it might be a case of buying somewhere cheap to get on the Irish property ladder or renting until such time as you can get a mortgage.

Where to live around Galway? we are in south east Galway on the slieve above Portumna, Loughrea and Gort so about an hours drive from Galway city (40 minutes from Ennis) but property can be found for half the price of city equivalents. Have a look on http://www.daft.ie/ for properties within your comfortable commuting distance, most folk round here travel up to about an hour to work as norm.

Without knowing your career I can't give insight into employment options for yourself but finding something over here rather than 1/2 and 1/2 would benefit mortgage application. My plans to work after doing up the cottage didn't happen due to a sudden change in health.

The Children are National school age and there should be no problems getting them into school especially if you look at rural areas where schools are crying out for additional pupils. Some national schools have smaller numbers as a whole than a typical UK junior school class. I was a school governor in a UK Junior school and can honestly say that children over here are typically equally or better educated through early years.

In short. We found somewhere to live within range of employment, Chris got a job to start coinciding with when we moved over in a local nursing/retirement home. Chris's House in The UK was for sale and my house was being rented out, we actually bought and lived in a 23ft touring caravan during the trasition between selling the house and moving over as Chris had to finish working and we had a lot of sorting out. Most furniture and items were shipped over in a rental van, my old pickup truck and in the caravan, I did price up removal companies but decided it was far better/cheaper to go the DIY route, the pickup and caravan were a one way trip and the hire van was return trip rental from this side. Had I had my way I would have bought an old Luton van over there, shipped everything in one go and sold the van over here.

Not sure any of that is specific enough but feel free to ask away if there are specifics.

Thanks Tony, plenty there to think about. We're thinking of heading over in Easter for 10 days to have a look around the area we think might suit. Areas we're looking at are Gort/Loughrea and as far north as Moycullen - but think we need to be there on the ground to get a better feel.
Its a decision we don't want to rush, but at the same time we are keen to go - so a dilema for us to resolve.

My line of work is Project Management, and i've worked across many sectors (IT/Data/Healthcare/Software/Engine Diagnstics), so i'm not tied to one area. There are plenty of PM jobs in Dublin but that doesn't interest me - the whole idea is to have a quality of life.

My wife is a Palliative Care Nurse (Macmillan) but i'd think a change of career is what she's after. If i can support us both then great, but that'll impact the mortgage application i guess?

If there was a way i could keep my existing job and take all the benefits of that, then that would be ideal, but as you say, that may well impact mortgage application and outcome.

How long have you moved Tony? Are you Irish originally and i guess the million dollar question is, would you recommend it, personal experience of course :-).

We'll take our time, do the research, not be swayed by the cheap homes on offer there - then head over with all the questions we need answering.

I'm lucky to have family in Ennis and Cahisiveen, so Galway (North or South) would be a decent bet, and for work.

If you do find any other info on living in Ire/working in UK i'd appreciate it - i'll continue to browse the Hinternet for those nuggets.

Thanks

Pearse

I don't want to name any names, but there are legit employers hiring work from home in IT fields in Ireland.

@dorzak - any recommendations how to find them?

I am UK born Irish bred spent time both sides the water living and working. Been here for 8 years exactly and neither of us would go back.

You will get a lot of Irish saying how good it is in the UK, lots of Jobs, great roads wonderful heath service and education. The grass is always greener?

If you balance out prices there isn't much to chose.

Instead of paying £100 per month council tax, I pay €90 a year.

Car insurance is about the same slightly cheaper here once you factor in the exchange rate.

Car tax is way more expensive but fuel is cheaper so over the year road tax and fuel combined come to about the same

Food shop nothing to chose these days. gone are the times when the truck came back loaded up when we went over for a visit. All I bought over New Years visit was a pair of shoes. I would have stocked up on whiskey had the kid's not done that for Christmas presies.

12 years as a school governor in the UK saw changes from education to ticking boxes for statisticians its not quite that bad over here but getting onto similar grounds. We had the Grandson (5) for 6 months last year and sorted him into the school across the road. Homework every night 1/2 hour and a reading book, he was instantly accepted into the school by the other kids.

The HSE saved my life in 2008 and found points that had been missed by the NHS since birth so no argument from me about the quality of health services here. although there is a divide between private and medical card patients.

Try https://www.recruitireland.com/ for possible jobs.

Pearse, you asked about a checklist. Have you checked out the one on this site. It's a constant work in progress, and of course not all will apply to everyone.
http://irelandmoveclub.com/international-moving-checklist/

Thanks Liam, much appreciated - am already on some of that but your checklist will help.
Looking at travel plans now for Easter to head back and do a recce of the areas we "think" may work for us - its still an early idea for us and we still have some big decisions to make.

Have started looking at potential jobsites and preliminary school locations so our interest is still there.

Keep any suggestions coming - the more info the better..

thanks again..

P.