Thank you all very much for taking the time to reply to me. I really appreciate it. It's a great community on here and that's part of what makes ER seem so do-able! Also cool to see a fellow Irishman on here!
I've set up talks with three different pension providers to see what they can offer me. One in particular is attractive because it offers an index fund tracking the S&P 500 as an investment option with the pension stash, and with my limited knowledge I tend to err to Buffett on these matters. They all make their charges pretty damn hard to find and compare though, so we'll see how that goes.
Rental cash flow might well be an option in a few years. I live in Dublin and actually work in the IFSC so I know first hand how attractive those apartments can be. I'm tempted to plan for buying one in which to live and rent out one bedroom, trying to get as close to that tax free 10k income from that private tenant situation as I can.
I currently rent in a cheaper part of the city so I could also just buy-to-let as you say - I cycle the 5 miles to and from work each day so living in the IFSC might actually end up more expensive for me (no cheap supermarkets and such)... Hmm. Something to think about there. The thing is, that buy-to-let income would be taxed at 41%, I think, and with average current rental prices (1400 per month for a two bed apartment) I'd be just shy of 10 k post-tax earnings on the property anyway, so at current prices it's basically a wash right now. I'll keep a close eye on the situation.
Right now a 50-60k 20% down payment is a way off for me - nearly two years pre-tax salary so my only real worry with this is that prices will have skyrocketed by the time I can afford it (probably 4-5 years at my current salary, which will hopefully go up). That's not the worst worry to have, though - hopefully that would mean the economy is roaring again and investment tax will be down!
Would you recommend putting any money in these small-yield An Post accounts?
And should I be concentrating all my savings on building up cash for a down payment, would you say, or continue to split my savings 60/40 as I have been the last few months between index funds and cash savings (in a permanent TSB, 2.75% AER savings account)? I suppose that depends on my goals and aversion to risk, but I'm very much the most inexperienced and stupid person in this room (and I mean this in the good way that one should aim to be) so I reckon I should just ask you experts what the best thing to do is to add to my own research :D
The available money for my normal savings will of course shrink by about a third given my projected pension payments which will slow me down here a bit. I do agree with you all though that a pension is almost certainly a good idea - I just hope I get relatively lucky with the stock market value when I hit 60!