Ireland - Hero to zero!

ceridwen

...wonders whether the "mobile" population of mainland Britain might end up moving to Southern Ireland....

Would it maybe make sense for those English/Scottish/Welsh people who are now "mobile" (ie because they've retired) to sell up and move to Southern Ireland - because, after all, our income would "follow us there anyway" (with pensions being paid from here).

We could sell our places here and buy somewhere much cheaper there...

....or am I missing something blindingly obvious?? Errr...whats the healthcare system like there? How do prices in the shops compare to ours?

tod123

Before anyone thinks the Irish are that badly off , this post was on HPC forum yesterday

Whilst I agree that the debt and debt interest are too much for Ireland, let's just pause and think about these so called benefit and welfare cuts.

Apparently minimum wage is to be cut by 13%. That will take their min wage from (current exchange rates) £7.33 to £6.37. Ooooh, nasty!. Until you realise that our min wage is £5.93.

Jobseekers allowance is going to be cut by 5%. That will take JSA from £166 / week (dependent on prior wage) to £158/week. Ooooh, nasty! Until you realise that our JSA is around £60/week (dependent on age).

Child benefit, will be cut by five per cent. That will take child benefit from £3,049 pa to £2,897. Ooooh, nasty. Until you realise our child benefit is £1,055 pa.

And what about income tax? Currently irish pay NO tax on income up to £15,506. Now I haven't read the fine print on that one, but suffice to say, here in the UK, all we can earn tax free is (singleton) £6,475.

And whilst out state penson is just £97/week, out Irish friends pay themselves twice that.

Radsteral

i had 2 irish plasterers who i had ketp to work for 3 years..work even sunday if they wanted.
they left without notice,3 years ago without even saying bye..shake hands or a phone call.
i understand they are back here last week and one s lost the house he bought there

ILW

[QUOTE=ceridwen;38778096]...wonders whether the "mobile" population of mainland Britain might end up moving to Southern Ireland....

Would it maybe make sense for those English/Scottish/Welsh people who are now "mobile" (ie because they've retired) to sell up and move to Southern Ireland - because, after all, our income would "follow us there anyway" (with pensions being paid from here).

We could sell our places here and buy somewhere much cheaper there...

....or am I missing something blindingly obvious?? Errr...whats the healthcare system like there? How do prices in the shops compare to ours?[/QUOTE]

Most of the "mobile" population of Ireland seem to be over here offering tarmacing services.

buglawton

tod123 wrote: »

Before anyone thinks the Irish are that badly off , this post was on HPC forum yesterday

Yes the terms & conditions of being an Irish citizen reflect the sort of progressive environment that the UK should aspire to. Amazing that they afforded all that for so long though, I grant.

de1amo

i saw some news article on the bbc talking about an exodus of 'mobile people' to the uk from Eire already taking place--it was about a young but trained nurse who couldnt get a job in the Republic. i dont know where and how we are expected to place these people in our shrinking economy-i expect they will claim benefits rates equal to back home and become a burden for us!
İ cant quite follow the idea of us wanting to go over there with our pensions because the cost of living is higher along with the high value of the Euro. İf you bought a cheap home there all the services and running costs would be substantialy greater and i know my mortgage is a minor consideration in my monthly flow of money!-i eat 3 times the amount of food than my mortgage so it would soon errode any equity i gained by selling my place here(if i could get a buyer!!)

bigheadxx

tod123 wrote: »

Before anyone thinks the Irish are that badly off , this post was on HPC forum yesterday
Whilst I agree that the debt and debt interest are too much for Ireland, let's just pause and think about these so called benefit and welfare cuts.

Apparently minimum wage is to be cut by 13%. That will take their min wage from (current exchange rates) £7.33 to £6.37. Ooooh, nasty!. Until you realise that our min wage is £5.93.

Jobseekers allowance is going to be cut by 5%. That will take JSA from £166 / week (dependent on prior wage) to £158/week. Ooooh, nasty! Until you realise that our JSA is around £60/week (dependent on age).

Child benefit, will be cut by five per cent. That will take child benefit from £3,049 pa to £2,897. Ooooh, nasty. Until you realise our child benefit is £1,055 pa.

And what about income tax? Currently irish pay NO tax on income up to £15,506. Now I haven't read the fine print on that one, but suffice to say, here in the UK, all we can earn tax free is (singleton) £6,475.

And whilst out state penson is just £97/week, out Irish friends pay themselves twice that.

What are you talking about? Ireland is trapped in the Euro. If it left and devalued you would see these figures at their true value, which would be peanuts. Ireland has, like most western countries, spent money that it has not earned and is probably never going to earn. Like the UK it will pay the interest but it will never repay the principal sum.

ceridwen

I hadnt realised the Southern Irish get so much higher benefits/NMW/State Pension than those of us in the rest of Britain
- but then I struggle to get my head round why one part of Britain is called "the Republic of Ireland" and has their own Government anyway..... I'm not up enough on my Irish history to know why this is.

tod123

bigheadxx wrote: »

What are you talking about? Ireland is trapped in the Euro. If it left and devalued you would see these figures at their true value, which would be peanuts. Ireland has, like most western countries, spent money that it has not earned and is probably never going to earn. Like the UK it will pay the interest but it will never repay the principal sum.

If you had mastered the art of reading, you would see that I was simply adding some fact about how badly off the average guy is in Eire.

And so that people like you can see where their 10 billion is going

buglawton

de1amo wrote: »

i saw some news article on the bbc talking about an exodus of 'mobile people' to the uk....... because the cost of living is higher along with the high value of the Euro. İf you bought a cheap home there all the services and running costs would be substantialy greater....

Only because the £ dropped like a stone against the Euro about 2 years ago, this 'cos UK govt saw fit to print money fast, which the EU did not want to do.