MSE News: Martin's reaction to Brexit

bells_on_it

Hi, both my parents are Irish born in Ireland therefore I am classed as an Irish citizen even though I was born in England. They both hold an Irish passport though I hold a British one. I am considering applying for my Irish passport to maintain EU membership. Do you think I am eligible and will I be able to apply for an Irish passport for my children? Plus my husband whos parents are both English, will he be able to apply for an Irish passport as we're married?

Marchitiello

bells_on_it wrote: »

Hi, both my parents are Irish born in Ireland therefore I am classed as an Irish citizen even though I was born in England. They both hold an Irish passport though I hold a British one. I am considering applying for my Irish passport to maintain EU membership. Do you think I am eligible and will I be able to apply for an Irish passport for my children? Plus my husband whos parents are both English, will he be able to apply for an Irish passport as we're married?

Do you know if you were registered with the Irish "Registry" system at birth? (often Consulate runs those registry in other countries). If you were, although born in London, you would be also Irish at birth and therefore, even without actually owning the passport, you would hold in practice dual nationality. You can then register your kids and apply for their passport too.

Not sure in other cases, but when I visited Argentina many years ago,I met few Europeans working at local embassy and consulate who told me they were very busy in granting citizenship to Argentinian football promises that had a direct ancestor in Europe so they could be classified as EU player within the various European leagues. If the Republic of Ireland also recognize Grandchildren of Irish born citizens to qualify for their passport, then it should be fine.

snowball27

BadTemperedCat wrote: »

What I'd really like to know, is what Martin thinks is going to happen to EU citizens who, like me, live, work and own property in the UK.

What will happen to our right to work and own property here? What about our children's university fees?

Any thoughts?

I also need to know about EU universities and there doesn't seem to be much information out there. Daughter is due to study in EU where there are no fees. What happens now? Even the Uni don't seem to know...

eskbanker

snowball27 wrote: »

I also need to know about EU universities and there doesn't seem to be much information out there. Daughter is due to study in EU where there are no fees. What happens now? Even the Uni don't seem to know...

It's hardly surprising though - this is a unique situation without precedent and there are millions of matters that require long and detailed analysis, negotiation, debate and legislation. Personally I'd just carry on with Plan A in your situation, as it's unlikely that anything significant will change for at least two years and even then it would surprise me if students already on a course would be affected....

LivvyKeegs

With uncertainty in the markets (including housing) should I reduce my mortgage overpayments, if I am considering selling in the next ~5 years?

Currently I overpay by a significant amount (around double the minimum monthly payment) which seems like a relatively 'safe' investment opportunity, but now I'm wondering if another housing crash could mean I end up losing money that would have been safer in a savings account. It know it's difficult to predict ('crystal ball gazing' as Martin would say) but assuming a similar picture to the house price crash in 2007, any thoughts on the relative risk would be greatly appreciated!

eskbanker

I don't follow that logic at all - the more money you pay off your mortgage, the less debt you have, regardless of what you'd ultimately end up selling for. If your mortgage rate is significantly lower than what you'd earn in savings then you might wish to save instead but that applies at any time, any potential changes to house price trends don't affect the fundamental equation of savings v mortgage.

bigadaj

LivvyKeegs wrote: »

With uncertainty in the markets (including housing) should I reduce my mortgage overpayments, if I am considering selling in the next ~5 years?

Currently I overpay by a significant amount (around double the minimum monthly payment) which seems like a relatively 'safe' investment opportunity, but now I'm wondering if another housing crash could mean I end up losing money that would have been safer in a savings account. It know it's difficult to predict ('crystal ball gazing' as Martin would say) but assuming a similar picture to the house price crash in 2007, any thoughts on the relative risk would be greatly appreciated!

Your question is irrelevant. Ignoring feelings such as I like the idea of being mortgage free, then teh only consideration is how your mortgage rate compares with what you would otherwise be doing with teh money, whether in current accounts, regular savers or other cash accounts, or investments or p2p if you want to be more exotic and take on more risk for anticipated reward.

The value of your property is largely irrelevant, aside from whether paying teh mortgage will unlock a better rate once you have fallen below a particular ltv percentage.

Bloomberg

colsten wrote: »

WOW. What a way to show appreciation for the tax and NI those people pay, and how they contribute to the wealth of our economy. It is very sad to see the lows our country has now sunk to.

Migrant workers have made a huge contribution to our economy. Very few people are opposed to immigration as we do need these people here to do certain jobs. What most people are averse to is uncontrolled immigration. Furthermore it is worth noting that whilst migrant workers pay tax and NI this is to an extent negated by the huge sums which they send back home, money which would from an economic standpoint be better spent here keeping our economy going.


That said, everyone should be treated with respect and the vilification of migrant workers is abhorrent.

Anthorn

Bloomberg wrote: »

Migrant workers have made a huge contribution to our economy. Very few people are opposed to immigration as we do need these people here to do certain jobs. What most people are averse to is uncontrolled immigration. Furthermore it is worth noting that whilst migrant workers pay tax and NI this is to an extent negated by the huge sums which they send back home, money which would from an economic standpoint be better spent here keeping our economy going.


That said, everyone should be treated with respect and the vilification of migrant workers is abhorrent.

Without being xenophobic I too am not convinced about the economic benefit of migrants. They pay tax and NI but European migrants send over 100 billion dollars from European countries to their home country every year, 17.1 billion dollars from the UK alone. I'd say those workers are more valuable to their home country than to the country they migrated to.

http://www.brusselstimes.com/about-us/3284/european-migrants-send-over-100-billion-dollars-home

colsten

Bloomberg wrote: »

Furthermore it is worth noting that whilst migrant workers pay tax and NI this is to an extent negated by the huge sums which they send back home, money which would from an economic standpoint be better spent here keeping our economy going.

We need to be very careful not to be seen as the pariahs of the planet. We invaded and occupied most of the world in Victorian times, and got unspeakably rich at the expense of poor countries back then. Nowadays, we pride ourselves to be the 5th richest nation in the world (despite all the "EU red tape"), we are totally happy to eat the fruit and veg picked by immigrants who we pay next to nothing, and then we complain that these people send "huge sums" back to their home countries.