Author Topic: Need help from Irish people  (Read 1960 times)

Padrepapp

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Need help from Irish people
« on: October 16, 2018, 05:59:54 AM »
Hi,

I received an offer for a job in Ireland. Currently I live in Budapest, Hungary with my wife. She is finishing her phd in biology this year, but want to teach in high school. We are also planning to have a child next year.

The job in Ireland would be near to Galway in a small town. I tried to use the site numbeo to compare cost of living between Budapest and Galway, but did not found any data about smaller towns around Galway.

As the offer stands, I would receive around 60k EUR/year which would be something like 3500EUR/month after taxes. Employer pays health insurance for me.

My question are:
If we move, and my wife gets pregnant, she won't have a job in Ireland, so I have to pay health insurance for her and for our child also. Whats your opinion about that?
If I am the only one working would I be able to provide for my wife+child(ren)?

Do any of you have a rough 'case study' how the costs look like in Ireland?

(I am mostly interested in the job out of adventure, and professional development.)

cerat0n1a

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Re: Need help from Irish people
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2018, 11:09:20 AM »
Hi, I'm not Irish, but I do know some engineers from Budapest who took a job in Galway :-)

Average full-time wage in Ireland is €45k, so you would be on decent pay relative to locals. Prices don't differ massively around the country (except house prices) but Galway is not particularly expensive.

If you're normally resident in Ireland, and/or an EU citizen, you get the same healthcare as locals, which is either free or requires some small fees to be paid (typically around 50 euros to see the doctor, for example). I wouldn't expect you to need to pay anything for your wife in terms of pregnancy and your child gets free GP visits until the age of 5 or 6. Private healthcare allows you to jump the queue for some things, get a nicer room in hospital if you stay overnight, that kind of thing. Or it may provide some benefit payments if you can't work because of illness (can be important for self-employed workers.) Most people don't have private health insurance, although the numbers are rising.

You would get child benefit €140 a month, I think.

Dave1442397

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Re: Need help from Irish people
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2018, 04:32:26 PM »
I'm Irish but haven't lived there in many years.

Galway is a nice city, with a younger vibe due to the many college students. If you're in a smaller town outside Galway, it shouldn't be crazy expensive to rent/buy a home, although prices in Galway city have been rising this year.

The cost of living in Ireland is high from my point of view, but you can be frugal.

Here's an article about medical cards - https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/medical-cards-what-do-they-give-you-and-how-do-you-get-one-1.3216965

And a couple of links about cost of living in the area -

https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/galway
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Galway

And living in Galway -

https://www.cv-library.ie/career-advice/start/location-guides/galway-guide-living-working-city/
https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-live-in-Galway
https://lovin.ie/counties/galway/22-reasons-you-should-up-and-move-to-galway-right-now


Padrepapp

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Re: Need help from Irish people
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2018, 10:42:08 PM »
Thanks for the answers!

reeshau

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Re: Need help from Irish people
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2018, 05:02:08 AM »
I have been in Dublin 4 months now, moved from the US.  Sweating the local rental rates / real estate prices, but that is very local to Dublin.  Here are a few more links:

Expatistan will also directly compare prices between Galway and Budapest:
https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/budapest/galway?

Be careful, though--it seems to be targeted to the "young professional" than a family: lots of anticipated eating out / drinking, living in city center, etc.  But it can give you specific ideas of what to look at / work to optimize.

If you want to look at house prices or rentals directly, check Daft:
https://www.daft.ie/

Bonkers can help you comparison shop for utilities, communication, and banking:
https://www.bonkers.ie/

And finally, for some general relocation tips:
https://relocatingtoireland.com/

Will you be working through a relocation company to assist you?

SmileAllDay

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Re: Need help from Irish people
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2018, 06:29:49 AM »
I agree with everything cerat0n1a said.

I'm Irish, living abroad, and a 60K salary would be a good wage. Since you're not in Galway City (which has a huge housing crisis and inflated market right now) you should be good.

Public health care is pretty good and affordable, if not speedy.

Private is more expensive and gets you to the front of the line and private room.
(http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/health_system/private_health_insurance.html)

I'm from Galway originally. You'll love it. It's the best city in Ireland! If you've any more Galway questions, let me know.