Thinking of moving to Southern Ireland - Page 2

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement 2020 continues the historic arrangements of reciprocity between the Republic of Ireland and the UK. This includes Medical Cards. So if your income is wholly derived from the UK you qualify for a Medical Card irrespective of means.  Caveat: if you have a private UK pension scheme and you transfer the scheme into the RoI then it becomes assesable  under the standard means assessment! 

Otherwise, no income guidelines apply to UK citizens who choose to live in the RoI.

You can live in ireland with no restrictions. You will be entitled to a medical card as an English citizen provided you are not receiving any social welfare payments from the Irish government. If you travel to any other eu country you will be under the 90 day rule

Yes all income  from any source plus your pensions are included in the means test. 

If you are under 70. 

Savings of up to 72000 euros are exempt for a couple.

Earnings 266 and 298 per week is the rate for a medical card.

If you are above that you may qualify for a gp card this covers doctor visits only.

Over 70 slightly higher and over 80 500euros per week per person is allowed.

Go to citizen information ireland website and in the search box top right hand corner type in medical card it explains everything.

Hope this helps I volunteered there for 11 years but things change every year.

Just a couple of points that may be of interest:-

I think there may have been some slight confusion regarding your actual request for information which relates to you moving to Ireland permanently from the UK.

My understanding is that you are not requiring Irish Citizenship (in order to evade the 90 day Schengen rule), you merely want to settle in Ireland without restrictions.

Ireland is NOT part of the Schengen Area so there are no restrictions for UK citizens.

I am a UK citizen who has lived in Ireland for 36 years, and although there has been quite a few changes to the Medical Card Eligibility criteria, I do believe that if you are both over 70 and your weekly income does not exceed €1050 then you qualify. 

(Many people use their EHIC whilst it is still valid for public healthcare until the bureaucracy is sorted).

Yes, Dublin and similar Irish cities are just like any other major European Capitals (Paris, Madrid, London, etc) where property prices and the cost of living are exorbitant.

However, in more rural counties property is still very good value compared to many UK areas.

Only problem is…many people have had the same idea as yourselves and the Brits seem to have bought this place up since Brexit, inflating property prices through the roof!!
(Many people are working from home now and the lure of Irish country life, plenty of land, beaches, excellent schools, etc …..and of course remaining in the European Union yet being only 40 mins away from the UK, seems to have proved to be too tempting altogether).

I wish you both well and my honest advice would be don’t hesitate….”Go for it!”

Sheila

You can move to Ireland and live there under CTA with no issues at all...under Good Friday agreement Irish and British are not subject to any controls over movement between the two.

If  and  when  you  decide  to  move to Ireland,  you should  consider  the South East of Ireland,  as it know  as  The  Sunny South  East   here  in  Ireland,   but not what you  are use to in South Costa Blanca  Area,   The West and North  West of Ireland  experience  high  volumes  of  Rain  wall,  hence Property  prices  are  lower,  South East of Ireland  has  Rosslare   which   allows   travel  to Fishguard,    Cherboug in France   and  Bilabo in Spain 🇪🇸 

I  am from North West of Ireland  but live in Wexford  area  and have many  English  neighbours  who are Happy  here

Good luck with your  Decision 

Thank you, interestingly it is the Wexford area we are thinking of!

 If  you  need any further  information  about  Wexford,  just  ask,  will  help   if  I  Can,  as  I  might  need a  few  questions  about  life in  Spain  as  coming  up to  Retirement,  soon

All your questions answered by accessing this link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-in-ireland#healthcare

You can qualify for an Irish passport after 5 continuous years living in Ireland under the naturalisation process. I worked with several UK colleagues who applied for naturalisation after Brexit as they had family living in Europe and wanted to be able to travel freely backwards and forwards to them on an EU passport.  I think I saw a figure of €2000 quoted somewhere. You also retain your UK passport.

Bee