People will rush here to tell you that there are problems everywhere. This is not untrue, but there are still places where you can have a good life.
I have family in Perth, Australia who are raking it in. The median weekly salary in Western Australia is $1250, or $5000 per month. The average rent within Perth city boundaries is $450 per week, or $1800 per month. The median property price is $442k. Both rent and property prices are lower in the suburbs. A young couple both earning the median salary can easily have a good life there.
Even closer to home, northern England has cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield which have loads of jobs and which are very affordable.
My nephew is going to Toronto to try save for a deposit.
As somebody who has lived extensively in Canada, I don’t have the heart to tell him.
I’d say it’s hard to get a proper grip on the long-term effect of emmigration from the 20-something bracket. Loads of them might emigrate, but then loads of them only do so for a few years before coming back again – especially when they want to start a family. It’s not like after ’09 when you had middle-aged couples with kids and all heading for the airport, desperate for work, or pre-90’s where anybody who left was pretty much not coming back ever.
We are a nation that prides itself on livestock exports, beef and college-educated kids.
You will hear the usual on this thread
“Ireland is actually great”
“There are problems everywhere”
“The clearly have never travelled if they think the grass is greener elsewhere”
All rubbish. The most important thing in having a good quality of life is having a secure roof over your head which Ireland is no good for. We are not talking houses are too expensive, we are talking even if you have money there are no houses
Ireland has its relatively high employment rates going but what good is money in your pocket if you have no where to live?
I feel like people who defend the place were lucky enough to get themselves set up before it all hit the fan and now arnt living in the real world
People are talking about this like it’s the normal thing to do and fair enough a lot of young people want a change of scenery and exciting things, but these are our young educated to the tits people who have bachelors and masters degrees who we are basically educating to ship them off.
I saw someone else on another thread describe Ireland as a great place to live once you’ve made your money and have a family, this is now mid 40s for a lot of people and all below that age bracket is left without a thought.
The weird mentality in this thread that’s against young people who have to make these hard decisions is really disheartening, no one wants to leave their family and friends just because they can’t afford a mortgage or rent after 6 years of college education
I left in march and it’s been really great since. Much better taxation/salary/quality of life in mainland Europe
Edit: most people I grew up with are abroad now too, half college friends are gone, the rest are actively making plans. Tired of the “it’s grand” Irish mindset and excuse-making that’s so rife across the country. It’s not grand, it’s far from grand. Abroad is the way to go.
Yeah most of us are getting our degree and getting out
The government are counting on it.
Have already done so, moved to UK for better grad opportunities and it opened doors that never would have been possible back in Ireland. Hate to say it but Ireland is not a place for freshly graduated students, and I speak for many others who’ve done the same.
I left 18 years ago “to get experience” as the job market was fucked. Fully expected it to be for 2 years. Still away (obviously), doing great and raising a Sasanach child.
To be fair, I am happy as f*#k, but do struggle with the idea of not raising my child in Ireland.
[deleted]
Moved to the Chicago a few years ago, managed to get a 1br apartment in a very nice part of the city for the equivalent (at the time) of around €800 a month. Then moved to Baltimore where we were able to get a 2br apartment in a great area for about €1000 a month. Since then we’ve bought a house, sold it and moved to outside Washington. At every single point has the process been relatively easy, stress free and very affordable compared to Ireland.
I would tell anyone to leave if they get the chance.
Serious question, which part of the English speaking world has the easiest to attain good quality of life ?
I moved to Melbourne, I got a job in a week which pays 20 thousand euro more than my more senior role in Ireland, my fiance and i can afford to rent a 2 bed house easily. The lifestyle is better and it’s actually hot most of the year. Only family would bring me back
This would be treated as an apocalyptic prospect in any other Northern European country requiring aggressive & immediate political change.
But in Ireland it’s “sure isn’t it nice for some”
Moved to Vietnam 3 years ago, life is so much better and comfortable.
Genuinely haven’t a notion of ever living in Ireland again.
The unfortunate reality is that this is one of the reasons behind the big pay gap in Ireland.
The real middle class leave. They have more opportunities and a better quality of life elsewhere. Those who can afford to stay do, with those who can’t afford to leave.
I moved to Dublin from Germany. I am in my early 30s and have a STEM PhD, I was considering that Ireland would likely be my permanent home – and honestly I’m well qualified- but even so the rent was killing me.
I left after 18 months – to LONDON of all places. I live on the outskirts of London (30min train/tube to city centre) and I pay about €1000 for a 2 bed flat which I don’t have to share with anyone.
Despite living much much further away over here my commute is actually shorter because of the great transport network. – I’ve gone from breaking even each much to being able to save 700€. I’ve been here 3 months and I’m starting to think about house purchasing using one of the first time buyer schemes.
I fucking loved the *idea* of living in Dublin. I really wanted it to work out, but the reality – it fucking sucks.
i’m beginning to think moving to ireland when i’m older is a bad idea, even if only temporary…
I was that guy who left in my 20s and exploring coming back in my 40s.
This cycle has been going on almost forever .
I do feel its very strange so many low paid inmigrants and refugees are coming in as our young ppl leave.
I mean, yeah. I don’t see Ireland as a nice place to live in. In Luxembourg I earn twice as much as in Ireland. In Vietnam, I can get 40k dollars per year and rent out an apartment with a swimming pool and a cleaner for 300 euro per month.
Just go, spread your wings, don’t worry, we’ll still be around when you come back – if you decide to come back.
It’s good to get a different view, I did it way back when God was a child, did it to learn things, expand my view of the world.
If you don’t return to live, at least enhance our Patrick’s Day celebrations
better subreddits too
70pc of Ireland’s young people considering emigrating to secure better quality of life overseas
–
Take your fucking “Irelands the second best country in world to live” articles and stick them up your fucking holes Fine Gael Redditors!
accepted a job back in the UK last week, moving over in November – girlfriend is moving over next year, she’s lived here all her life and admits there’s no future here
Was in Finland last week. Great quality housing (and most apartment blocks have saunas), great public transport, great bike infrastructure. I’m seriously considering moving there. A good few downsides though like how difficult Finnish is to learn, the darkness of winter, 10 euros for a pint, income tax rates…
That’s a polite way of saying the majority of younger people feel shafted by greedy older Irish generations. In a lot of cases these people have parents and grandparents that are a large part of the problem – voting the same way at every election, buying or hoarding property and renting it out for a few bob, buying holiday homes just for the craic and letting them sit idle most of the year… all part of the problem.
Living in Switzerland at the moment. In Bern (population around 130,000) there are over 600 apartments available to rent at the moment on the main property website. In Dublin, on daft.ie, it is about 250.
I’m going to move to Germany (haven’t decided which city yet, but Frankfurt looks nice, Munich too, maybe even Dresden or Leipzig) when I finish my teaching qualification. Learning German every day so I’m ready to go right when I finish the PME. Just at my wit’s end in this place. The scrote teenagers with no respect for authority or communal spaces (children are much better-behaved in Germany), anti social behaviour, constant dumping, litter all over our cities (it honestly makes me feel like crying and throwing up when I look at the state of O’Connell Street, it’s like we’ve gone feral), house prices and no free college, all the while paying 52% tax at a ridiculously low threshold for the hell of living here. I’m done.
My brother recently did a 6 month stint with his firm’s Dublin office and wanted to stay but accom and public transport put him off. I honestly thought he was taking the piss with the ads, prices and sheer lack of places. He is on a nice pay packet too.
As with lots of these things, I guess there must be a breaking point?
I left in 2011 and I highly recommend it. Quality of life is much better elsewhere. The salary I’m on now just wouldn’t be possible in Ireland.
I miss home, the craic, the people, etc but I don’t regret leaving. It literally saved my life too. I had an extremely rare form of cancer (153rd known case in medical literature) and it likely wouldn’t have been caught or caught too late in Ireland.
You can always move back if it does not work out. Do it!
I’m not that “young” anymore but have recently emigrated to Germany and of course, nowhere is perfect, nowhere is easy, especially if you’re new to the language. But honestly, my day to day quality of life is far, far ahead of anything I could hope to find in Ireland.
There are teething problems of course, and bureaucracy is a pain sometimes, but after a few weeks of being here we realised that Ireland, the state, government parties, civil service, whatever is to blame; its just not working. Or rather, to paraphrase Catherine Connolly it’s not working for the common good.
Prices for day to day items, the level of service and availability of those services are on another planet here. My broadband bill is about half what it was in Ireland. My mobile bill is also about half what I was paying. After a few weeks of arriving we needed a dentist appointment; no problem, no hunting around for someone taking new patients, even found a number that were English-speaking. Popped into the pharmacy on the way home, 48 pack of ibuprofen? Sure thing 5.50 please. A friend here had to go to the hospital and were confused when we asked how many hours they had to sit in the waiting room to be seen. They said they were waiting maybe an hour by the way.
Not 12 hours, not 16 hours sitting on broken plastic chairs staring hopelessly at a half-empty vending machine as we had to in St James’.
Perhaps they just got lucky.
Everyone was warning us upon arrival here that oh the rents are crazy, it’s impossible, a nightmare. Wasn’t fun for sure but try find an equivalent 100sqm 3 bedroom apartment we’re now living in, in Dublin and tell me how fun that was and how many organs you had to sell to pay for it. By comparison to the locals we’re like shell-shocked Vietnam veterans being warned about how stressful going to the supermarket is. Our old apartment in Dublin by the way is 60% smaller, and is going back onto the market at about 200 euro cheaper than our new apartment here.
Every morning I walk down clean, relatively well-mantained tree-lined streets. I no longer have to step over big globs of tarmac or snake my way through a slalom of street signs and superfluous poles.
I have been able to avail of cafes and shops after 6pm and the city doesn’t shut down entirely after midnight/2am either. I haven’t had junkies pissing, shitting or threatening my wife in the stairwell of our building as we did in Dublin every few months or so, I’m even able to, heaven forbid, get a drink and have change back from a fiver.
I turn on the news and Olaf Scholz is explaining that, yes there’s an energy crisis but they’re working on the storage and have built up supplies for winter. Meanwhile here Eamonn Ryan is easing people into the idea of blackouts in Ireland. Blackouts which by the way have nothing to do with the energy crisis or Ukraine but it’s all down to our shambolic infrastructure and planning regime ( don’t believe me, just listen to the Irish Times https://open.spotify.com/episode/5kceBDHwP0EJyqlo3lcjqF?si=FtqpskstR_qSM1MoDReIuA).
Any German will complain about their infrastructure falling apart and the projects here take far far too long. BER airport being the main culprit. But, for a bit of perspective, there is a new tram line extension being built right by my new neighborhood and it’ll be operational January 2023. This 2.2km stretch apparently cost about 33 million euro and has been in planning/construction since 2015z The Luas cross city project on the other hand was 5.6km cost 368 million.
Ireland is a great place, with fantastic people and real potential but we are led by a class of third-rate political minnows. Political leadership means taking difficult, perhaps even unpopular in the short-term decisions for the ultimate betterment of the country and her people. The venal and craven carry-on of our leadership with regard to properties, jobs for the boys etc is small potatoes. It is their complete lack of vision and ambition that is so utterly disgraceful in my eyes.
No doubt there’ll be the usual sniping of “oh the grass isn’t always greener”, or “ah they’ll come back, nothing abnormal here”, but honestly anyone who has the means to leave Ireland now, but doesn’t is a fool to not try and get out in my opinion. Everything is a risk, and some places are worse than Ireland in many ways of course, maybe some other countries just don’t work out for some people, sometimes people just get homesick.
And that’s fine too, but if you can try it, go for it. Look beyond Australia or Canada too, learn a foreign language, I promise you it will be worth it. And if you find you don’t quite like France or Belgium or Finland or wherever, keep looking. Go to Chile, go to Korea, go to Vietnam, whatever just go out in the world and don’t look back. The German government are no doubt pleased enough to take this well-earning 30-something third-level educated worker, even if Ireland apparently couldn’t give a shit. Anyone who prattles on about GDP or the UN HDI ranking can go fuck themselves too. Last I checked, my landlord wasn’t letting me pay my rent with printouts of employment figures or GDP charts.
Never say never and all that, but I don’t see a future where I’ll ever return to Ireland. My wife and I tried for two years to buy a house, we saved a deposit of more than our combined yearly gross salary over 5 years, and still it felt like Ireland was telling us to fuck off.
So off we’ve fucked.
I thoroughly recommend it.
5 years living settled in one place abroad. I just can’t imagine returning to an expected standard of giving away half my salary for rent (especially to share with people!). And though where I live has extremely high prices for buying houses/apartments, I can afford to rent at the very least until I make any other decisions. And also make savings through economical choices! My friends don’t seem to be able to have the cheap options as a fallback when trying to save at home. It’s so sad to explain it to my parents or friends, but my recent visit back home (for the first time since 2019) really opened my eyes to the reality that I can’t afford to live in Ireland. I didn’t mention lifestyle, because that’s really an individual thing, but that obviously plays a huge factor too.
35 comments
People will rush here to tell you that there are problems everywhere. This is not untrue, but there are still places where you can have a good life.
I have family in Perth, Australia who are raking it in. The median weekly salary in Western Australia is $1250, or $5000 per month. The average rent within Perth city boundaries is $450 per week, or $1800 per month. The median property price is $442k. Both rent and property prices are lower in the suburbs. A young couple both earning the median salary can easily have a good life there.
Even closer to home, northern England has cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield which have loads of jobs and which are very affordable.
My nephew is going to Toronto to try save for a deposit.
As somebody who has lived extensively in Canada, I don’t have the heart to tell him.
I’d say it’s hard to get a proper grip on the long-term effect of emmigration from the 20-something bracket. Loads of them might emigrate, but then loads of them only do so for a few years before coming back again – especially when they want to start a family. It’s not like after ’09 when you had middle-aged couples with kids and all heading for the airport, desperate for work, or pre-90’s where anybody who left was pretty much not coming back ever.
We are a nation that prides itself on livestock exports, beef and college-educated kids.
You will hear the usual on this thread
“Ireland is actually great”
“There are problems everywhere”
“The clearly have never travelled if they think the grass is greener elsewhere”
All rubbish. The most important thing in having a good quality of life is having a secure roof over your head which Ireland is no good for. We are not talking houses are too expensive, we are talking even if you have money there are no houses
Ireland has its relatively high employment rates going but what good is money in your pocket if you have no where to live?
I feel like people who defend the place were lucky enough to get themselves set up before it all hit the fan and now arnt living in the real world
People are talking about this like it’s the normal thing to do and fair enough a lot of young people want a change of scenery and exciting things, but these are our young educated to the tits people who have bachelors and masters degrees who we are basically educating to ship them off.
I saw someone else on another thread describe Ireland as a great place to live once you’ve made your money and have a family, this is now mid 40s for a lot of people and all below that age bracket is left without a thought.
The weird mentality in this thread that’s against young people who have to make these hard decisions is really disheartening, no one wants to leave their family and friends just because they can’t afford a mortgage or rent after 6 years of college education
I left in march and it’s been really great since. Much better taxation/salary/quality of life in mainland Europe
Edit: most people I grew up with are abroad now too, half college friends are gone, the rest are actively making plans. Tired of the “it’s grand” Irish mindset and excuse-making that’s so rife across the country. It’s not grand, it’s far from grand. Abroad is the way to go.
Yeah most of us are getting our degree and getting out
The government are counting on it.
Have already done so, moved to UK for better grad opportunities and it opened doors that never would have been possible back in Ireland. Hate to say it but Ireland is not a place for freshly graduated students, and I speak for many others who’ve done the same.
I left 18 years ago “to get experience” as the job market was fucked. Fully expected it to be for 2 years. Still away (obviously), doing great and raising a Sasanach child.
To be fair, I am happy as f*#k, but do struggle with the idea of not raising my child in Ireland.
[deleted]
Moved to the Chicago a few years ago, managed to get a 1br apartment in a very nice part of the city for the equivalent (at the time) of around €800 a month. Then moved to Baltimore where we were able to get a 2br apartment in a great area for about €1000 a month. Since then we’ve bought a house, sold it and moved to outside Washington. At every single point has the process been relatively easy, stress free and very affordable compared to Ireland.
I would tell anyone to leave if they get the chance.
Serious question, which part of the English speaking world has the easiest to attain good quality of life ?
I moved to Melbourne, I got a job in a week which pays 20 thousand euro more than my more senior role in Ireland, my fiance and i can afford to rent a 2 bed house easily. The lifestyle is better and it’s actually hot most of the year. Only family would bring me back
This would be treated as an apocalyptic prospect in any other Northern European country requiring aggressive & immediate political change.
But in Ireland it’s “sure isn’t it nice for some”
Moved to Vietnam 3 years ago, life is so much better and comfortable.
Genuinely haven’t a notion of ever living in Ireland again.
The unfortunate reality is that this is one of the reasons behind the big pay gap in Ireland.
The real middle class leave. They have more opportunities and a better quality of life elsewhere. Those who can afford to stay do, with those who can’t afford to leave.
I moved to Dublin from Germany. I am in my early 30s and have a STEM PhD, I was considering that Ireland would likely be my permanent home – and honestly I’m well qualified- but even so the rent was killing me.
I left after 18 months – to LONDON of all places. I live on the outskirts of London (30min train/tube to city centre) and I pay about €1000 for a 2 bed flat which I don’t have to share with anyone.
Despite living much much further away over here my commute is actually shorter because of the great transport network. – I’ve gone from breaking even each much to being able to save 700€. I’ve been here 3 months and I’m starting to think about house purchasing using one of the first time buyer schemes.
I fucking loved the *idea* of living in Dublin. I really wanted it to work out, but the reality – it fucking sucks.
i’m beginning to think moving to ireland when i’m older is a bad idea, even if only temporary…
I was that guy who left in my 20s and exploring coming back in my 40s.
This cycle has been going on almost forever .
I do feel its very strange so many low paid inmigrants and refugees are coming in as our young ppl leave.
I mean, yeah. I don’t see Ireland as a nice place to live in. In Luxembourg I earn twice as much as in Ireland. In Vietnam, I can get 40k dollars per year and rent out an apartment with a swimming pool and a cleaner for 300 euro per month.
Just go, spread your wings, don’t worry, we’ll still be around when you come back – if you decide to come back.
It’s good to get a different view, I did it way back when God was a child, did it to learn things, expand my view of the world.
If you don’t return to live, at least enhance our Patrick’s Day celebrations
better subreddits too
70pc of Ireland’s young people considering emigrating to secure better quality of life overseas
–
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/70pc-of-irelands-young-people-considering-emigrating-to-secure-better-quality-of-life-overseas-41980687.html
Take your fucking “Irelands the second best country in world to live” articles and stick them up your fucking holes Fine Gael Redditors!
accepted a job back in the UK last week, moving over in November – girlfriend is moving over next year, she’s lived here all her life and admits there’s no future here
Was in Finland last week. Great quality housing (and most apartment blocks have saunas), great public transport, great bike infrastructure. I’m seriously considering moving there. A good few downsides though like how difficult Finnish is to learn, the darkness of winter, 10 euros for a pint, income tax rates…
That’s a polite way of saying the majority of younger people feel shafted by greedy older Irish generations. In a lot of cases these people have parents and grandparents that are a large part of the problem – voting the same way at every election, buying or hoarding property and renting it out for a few bob, buying holiday homes just for the craic and letting them sit idle most of the year… all part of the problem.
Living in Switzerland at the moment. In Bern (population around 130,000) there are over 600 apartments available to rent at the moment on the main property website. In Dublin, on daft.ie, it is about 250.
I’m going to move to Germany (haven’t decided which city yet, but Frankfurt looks nice, Munich too, maybe even Dresden or Leipzig) when I finish my teaching qualification. Learning German every day so I’m ready to go right when I finish the PME. Just at my wit’s end in this place. The scrote teenagers with no respect for authority or communal spaces (children are much better-behaved in Germany), anti social behaviour, constant dumping, litter all over our cities (it honestly makes me feel like crying and throwing up when I look at the state of O’Connell Street, it’s like we’ve gone feral), house prices and no free college, all the while paying 52% tax at a ridiculously low threshold for the hell of living here. I’m done.
My brother recently did a 6 month stint with his firm’s Dublin office and wanted to stay but accom and public transport put him off. I honestly thought he was taking the piss with the ads, prices and sheer lack of places. He is on a nice pay packet too.
As with lots of these things, I guess there must be a breaking point?
I left in 2011 and I highly recommend it. Quality of life is much better elsewhere. The salary I’m on now just wouldn’t be possible in Ireland.
I miss home, the craic, the people, etc but I don’t regret leaving. It literally saved my life too. I had an extremely rare form of cancer (153rd known case in medical literature) and it likely wouldn’t have been caught or caught too late in Ireland.
You can always move back if it does not work out. Do it!
I’m not that “young” anymore but have recently emigrated to Germany and of course, nowhere is perfect, nowhere is easy, especially if you’re new to the language. But honestly, my day to day quality of life is far, far ahead of anything I could hope to find in Ireland.
There are teething problems of course, and bureaucracy is a pain sometimes, but after a few weeks of being here we realised that Ireland, the state, government parties, civil service, whatever is to blame; its just not working. Or rather, to paraphrase Catherine Connolly it’s not working for the common good.
Prices for day to day items, the level of service and availability of those services are on another planet here. My broadband bill is about half what it was in Ireland. My mobile bill is also about half what I was paying. After a few weeks of arriving we needed a dentist appointment; no problem, no hunting around for someone taking new patients, even found a number that were English-speaking. Popped into the pharmacy on the way home, 48 pack of ibuprofen? Sure thing 5.50 please. A friend here had to go to the hospital and were confused when we asked how many hours they had to sit in the waiting room to be seen. They said they were waiting maybe an hour by the way.
Not 12 hours, not 16 hours sitting on broken plastic chairs staring hopelessly at a half-empty vending machine as we had to in St James’.
Perhaps they just got lucky.
Everyone was warning us upon arrival here that oh the rents are crazy, it’s impossible, a nightmare. Wasn’t fun for sure but try find an equivalent 100sqm 3 bedroom apartment we’re now living in, in Dublin and tell me how fun that was and how many organs you had to sell to pay for it. By comparison to the locals we’re like shell-shocked Vietnam veterans being warned about how stressful going to the supermarket is. Our old apartment in Dublin by the way is 60% smaller, and is going back onto the market at about 200 euro cheaper than our new apartment here.
Every morning I walk down clean, relatively well-mantained tree-lined streets. I no longer have to step over big globs of tarmac or snake my way through a slalom of street signs and superfluous poles.
I have been able to avail of cafes and shops after 6pm and the city doesn’t shut down entirely after midnight/2am either. I haven’t had junkies pissing, shitting or threatening my wife in the stairwell of our building as we did in Dublin every few months or so, I’m even able to, heaven forbid, get a drink and have change back from a fiver.
I turn on the news and Olaf Scholz is explaining that, yes there’s an energy crisis but they’re working on the storage and have built up supplies for winter. Meanwhile here Eamonn Ryan is easing people into the idea of blackouts in Ireland. Blackouts which by the way have nothing to do with the energy crisis or Ukraine but it’s all down to our shambolic infrastructure and planning regime ( don’t believe me, just listen to the Irish Times https://open.spotify.com/episode/5kceBDHwP0EJyqlo3lcjqF?si=FtqpskstR_qSM1MoDReIuA).
Any German will complain about their infrastructure falling apart and the projects here take far far too long. BER airport being the main culprit. But, for a bit of perspective, there is a new tram line extension being built right by my new neighborhood and it’ll be operational January 2023. This 2.2km stretch apparently cost about 33 million euro and has been in planning/construction since 2015z The Luas cross city project on the other hand was 5.6km cost 368 million.
Ireland is a great place, with fantastic people and real potential but we are led by a class of third-rate political minnows. Political leadership means taking difficult, perhaps even unpopular in the short-term decisions for the ultimate betterment of the country and her people. The venal and craven carry-on of our leadership with regard to properties, jobs for the boys etc is small potatoes. It is their complete lack of vision and ambition that is so utterly disgraceful in my eyes.
No doubt there’ll be the usual sniping of “oh the grass isn’t always greener”, or “ah they’ll come back, nothing abnormal here”, but honestly anyone who has the means to leave Ireland now, but doesn’t is a fool to not try and get out in my opinion. Everything is a risk, and some places are worse than Ireland in many ways of course, maybe some other countries just don’t work out for some people, sometimes people just get homesick.
And that’s fine too, but if you can try it, go for it. Look beyond Australia or Canada too, learn a foreign language, I promise you it will be worth it. And if you find you don’t quite like France or Belgium or Finland or wherever, keep looking. Go to Chile, go to Korea, go to Vietnam, whatever just go out in the world and don’t look back. The German government are no doubt pleased enough to take this well-earning 30-something third-level educated worker, even if Ireland apparently couldn’t give a shit. Anyone who prattles on about GDP or the UN HDI ranking can go fuck themselves too. Last I checked, my landlord wasn’t letting me pay my rent with printouts of employment figures or GDP charts.
Never say never and all that, but I don’t see a future where I’ll ever return to Ireland. My wife and I tried for two years to buy a house, we saved a deposit of more than our combined yearly gross salary over 5 years, and still it felt like Ireland was telling us to fuck off.
So off we’ve fucked.
I thoroughly recommend it.
5 years living settled in one place abroad. I just can’t imagine returning to an expected standard of giving away half my salary for rent (especially to share with people!). And though where I live has extremely high prices for buying houses/apartments, I can afford to rent at the very least until I make any other decisions. And also make savings through economical choices! My friends don’t seem to be able to have the cheap options as a fallback when trying to save at home. It’s so sad to explain it to my parents or friends, but my recent visit back home (for the first time since 2019) really opened my eyes to the reality that I can’t afford to live in Ireland. I didn’t mention lifestyle, because that’s really an individual thing, but that obviously plays a huge factor too.
Left in 2013. Best decision I ever made.