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Why not move to Northern Ireland?

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    #32
    KyussB
    Registered Users Posts: 2,314 ✭✭✭KyussB


    Things have changed a bit due to lack of construction during the pandemic, but if you do your research you can get a house in a good area for about half the cost of an equivalently good area down South.

    Perfect place to duck out the housing crisis, if you have the job flexibility - but you might be waiting a decade for the housing crisis to be sorted, if ever, if you plan to move back eventually.

    It's a different tax/employment-law jurisdiction, though - and the UK has badly ballsed up things for contractors, lately - so you have to talk to a financial advisor about work in NI/UK, before considering it (as in: this is mandatory, imo).

    You have to do your research on good vs bad areas (same with Dub, really), you would need to create a new language exclusively composed of scatalogical/graphic-reproductive-system-dysfunction references, to find words for adequately describing politics in NI - but that's ok, most places on the island are shitholes in their own unique way anyway, this ones just its own different type of (much more affordable) shithole - which is not necessarily worse than Dub or anywhere else, just a different mix of good/bad.


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    #33
    mfceiling
    Registered Users Posts: 12,780 ✭✭✭✭mfceiling


    Darc19 wrote: »
    Hope you don't have children - children's allowance is way way lower.

    Hope you don't become unemployed. - Job seekers allowance is about £75

    Hope you don't just qualify for basic pension. Way lower too.

    And don't forget the rates bill. Even a modest house with £200,000 value will have a rates bill of £2,000.

    Nope. I've a house worth £125k and the rates bill is never more than £700....less if you pay early


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    #34
    murpho999
    Registered Users Posts: 28,426 ✭✭✭✭murpho999


    gmisk wrote: »
    Does it? I might have missed the civil wars...I was born there in 1981...

    Tbh I would feel a lot safer in NI than most places in ROI

    Where would you feel unsafe in ROI?

    The reality is that the whole island is a remarkably safe place.

    This notion of places being unsafe annoys me. Try going to some places in the US or Central America to discover what unsafe means.


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    #35
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Charles Babbage wrote: »
    Have you actually looked at the NI waiting lists or are you just guessing?

    https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/outpatient-waiting-times


    three quarters of people waiting more than a year for ENT does not sound like Nirvana to me.

    On the public list here I was waiting 4 years for an ENT referral and got a call asking if I wanted to stay on the list. I said yes. A year later I rang around and apparently no-one even knows where the list is. Still never heard back about it 8 years later so maybe I'm still on it?
    Privately (pre-covid) it took 5 months for me to see a consultant and another almost 3 to get an appointment for a minor operation.
    Currently waiting 3 months for a different referral and still haven't heard anything back. That's while we pay the same amount per person for the HSE as the UK pays for the NHS and I pay €2k+ per year for insurance.
    The NHS is by no means perfect but they would get quite a shock if they had to put up with what passes for a health service down here. Having to wait a couple of days for a GP appointment, can you imagine!? :pac: Then not having to pay for whatever prescription you're given. God love them.

    All that said there's plenty of other reasons I wouldn't be in a hurry to move north. Sometimes I look at the houses 5 miles away and the car I could drive for a tiny amount but there's plenty of ahem, cultural downsides.


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    #36
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 33,123 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Charles Babbage wrote: »
    Have you actually looked at the NI waiting lists or are you just guessing?

    https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/outpatient-waiting-times


    three quarters of people waiting more than a year for ENT does not sound like Nirvana to me.

    Don't believe the hype about the NHS, especially in NI.

    It is a system in a mess. Waiting lists are terrible and CV19 will only have set it back even further.

    Yes, its handy for a free appt with your GP, and there is free prescriptions in the North, but its generally poor and in decline. A lot of people still have private health insurance in the North too, and if the NHS was so great, there would be no need.

    My own father died whilst waiting on an operation.


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    #37
    irish_goat
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 5,770 Mod ✭✭✭✭irish_goat


    Charles Babbage wrote: »
    three quarters of people waiting more than a year for ENT does not sound like Nirvana to me.

    I'm waiting 5 years for ENT. Been told recently they currently working through the 2015 list.


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    #38
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    irish_goat wrote: »
    I'm waiting 5 years for ENT. Been told recently they currently working through the 2015 list.

    Damn, last I heard from them was 2014 so looks like they just went ahead and took me off the list, bastards. :pac:


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    #39
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    zambrotta11 wrote: »
    But there is a double taxation agreement with Ireland and the UK so you can just declare your earnings to HRMC and you don't have to pay tax again. I know loads of people doing it
    I think that only applies to the individual.

    The issue for employers is that if they hire someone in another jurisdiction as a full-time employee, then they may be required to legally register in that jurisdiction and pay local taxes and rates.
    You can get around it by "quitting" and being re-hired as an independent contractor (losing all your employment protections), but the notion of upping sticks and leaving Ireland while keeping your current job isn't that straightforward.


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    #40
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,381 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    There are lovely bits of NI, think of having all the advantages of living by the coast with mountains behind you, a hiking swimming lifestyle mines the property prices such an area would have down here and a lot less talk about 'life style' and less food truck.


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    #41
    OEP
    Registered Users Posts: 1,154 ✭✭✭OEP


    mariaalice wrote: »
    There are lovely bits of NI, think of having all the advantages of living by the coast with mountains behind you, a hiking swimming lifestyle mines the property prices such an area would have down here and a lot less talk about 'life style' and less food truck.

    Most of the west coast of Ireland can allow you live by the coast with mountains behind you


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    #42
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,381 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    OEP wrote: »
    Most of the west coast of Ireland can allow you live by the coast with mountains behind you

    The place I am familiar with it feels different, the coast and mountains but at the same time, it's just a place people live and work in, as I said much less of the 'lifestyle' and much cheaper property prices.


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    #43
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,381 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    I am not suggesting anyone move to Newry but look at prices.

    https://www.propertypal.com/ashgrove-heights-newry/d2985

    Newry has some top-rated schools and you would have the NHS.


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    #44
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 33,123 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    mariaalice wrote: »
    I am not suggesting anyone move to Newry but look at prices.

    https://www.propertypal.com/ashgrove-heights-newry/d2985

    Newry has some top-rated schools and you would have the NHS.

    .... and again with the NHS!

    Do Republic residents think the NHS in NI is some sort of 5star, private health insurance policy type deal? Like you have a condition or illness and they take you in the next day to sort it?


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    #45
    TheWonderLlama
    Registered Users Posts: 591 ✭✭✭TheWonderLlama


    how would a mortgage work if you are working in a different jurisdiction? might be a problem.


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    #46
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 33,123 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    TheWonderLlama wrote: »
    how would a mortgage work if you are working in a different jurisdiction? might be a problem.

    Loads of NI workers would live in Donegal, and other border counties.
    I was one of them.

    I'm sure it's manageable.


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    #47
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 11,614 ✭ [Deleted User]


    A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »
    It's probably not been an option until now.

    Working from home gives us the freedom to live anywhere we want, even the most inhospitable, derelict places, such as Northern Ireland.

    House prices in Northern Ireland are at least 25% cheaper than in the Republic. You can earn a southern salary and get an NHS. The cost of living is so much cheaper. The benefits are immense.

    We are currently looking at properties in Co. Down, I wonder why more Irish people haven't looked to the North as a convenient, cheaper place to relocate?

    Living in a different country, outside of the EU, with frankly a bizarre political regime?

    Yes! That sounds like a great idea! (yes this is sarcasm)

    Anytime Ive been in Belfast in the past 10 years I had a great time and people were friendly and the city itself is lovely, and very clean. Its a great place to go to, and the people are lovely. However, dont assume you can just move there and things will be better.


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    #48
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,381 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    NIMAN wrote: »
    .... and again with the NHS!

    Do Republic residents think the NHS in NI is some sort of 5star, private health insurance policy type deal? Like you have a condition or illness and they take you in the next day to sort it?

    No of course not, but the fact that it's free at the point is use is a big difference i.e it's not 60 euro to see a GP, the NHS is not perfect. Its a balance there is council tax in NI on the other had school book are free in IN a couple of hundred euro each year here and so on.


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    #49
    mariaalice
    Registered Users Posts: 12,381 ✭✭✭✭mariaalice


    Also no in Aldi in NI.


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    #50
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 33,123 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    mariaalice wrote: »
    No of course not, but the fact that it's free at the point is use is a big difference i.e it's not 60 euro to see a GP, the NHS is not perfect. Its a balance there is council tax in NI on the other had school book are free in IN a couple of hundred euro each year here and so on.

    As someone who used to live in NI, and who works in it now and visits it regularly, I would agree that its a cheaper place to live.

    But each jurisdiction has its advantages and disadvantages.

    Yes the fact that the NHS is free at point of use, and prescriptions are free is great. But try getting an appointment with a GP up there. My GP is still in NI, and I could be waiting a minimum of 3 weeks. Down here, my wife could get an appointment tomorrow if she called now. GPs in the North are clogged up with moaning, work-shy, perpetually sick people. A lot of them have not much wrong with them (I'm sure the same could be said of the Souths GP offices with medical card holders). If it was a tenner to see a GP in the North, a thing I have always advocated, then the waiting rooms would thin out dramatically.

    Politically of course its a real sh1thole. At least in the South, politics is about the economy, jobs, health, education. You know, real world things. In the North politics is about religion and sectarianism first, and everything else second. Everything politically is on green and orange lines. There are loads of issues that should be uniting both communities, but they are too thran to actually do this, preferring to continue old battles going back to a time when many of the currentl population weren't even born.


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    #51
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    NIMAN wrote: »
    .... and again with the NHS!

    Do Republic residents think the NHS in NI is some sort of 5star, private health insurance policy type deal? Like you have a condition or illness and they take you in the next day to sort it?
    No-one thinks it's perfect but again compared to down here it's incredible. I have health insurance but it's 60 quid out of pocket (get 30 back later) for the GP, couple of times a year I'm out ~100 quid for medication. Dentist costs a good lot more. 200 out of pocket for a consultant (get half back). Finally get the treatment you know you need and the doctor knows you need and there's often an excess. Or you have to spend a few hours checking which hospital won't have an excess or is covered on your insurance and is it worth going the extra 45 minutes away to save 50/100/200 quid.
    A year's wait up there is considered horrendous but down here without going private you'd love to wait "over a year" for many referrals. I'd love if I could ring up for an appointment this afternoon with my GP, occasionally I've been able to see one of the other doctors in the practice at short notice (next day) but usually there's a wait. Again, while paying for it.
    I'd agree with the nominal fee for a GP up there, would make a massive difference and relieve an awful lot of the pressure.

    The only "serious" treatment I actually got on the public system took 4 or 5 years (teen years are fuzzy :P) to get the procedure I obviously needed. And I had to travel to Omagh for it.


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    #52
    Darc19
    Registered Users Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭Darc19


    mfceiling wrote: »
    Nope. I've a house worth £125k and the rates bill is never more than £700....less if you pay early

    €90 for that here, :)

    But we do have to pay for bins - means recycling rates are substantially better.

    It is swings and roundabouts though.

    My dad was from Antrim, so still plenty of relatives up there. The one thing that brings it down is the substantial uneducated elements both nationalist and unionist that cause trouble


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    #53
    Chris_5339762
    Registered Users Posts: 5,857 ✭✭✭Chris_5339762


    mariaalice wrote: »
    Also no in Aldi in NI.


    ...Sainsburys and Asda though.


    Although all shops are still closed on Sunday up until lunchtime, even the "24hr" Tescos. Only fuel stations are open really.


    Not a big deal, but a PITA at the same time.


    Edit: Enormous obsession with car washing at the weekends up there.


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    #54
    griffdaddy
    Registered Users Posts: 3,411 ✭✭✭griffdaddy


    [Deleted User] wrote: »
    On the public list here I was waiting 4 years for an ENT referral and got a call asking if I wanted to stay on the list. I said yes. A year later I rang around and apparently no-one even knows where the list is. Still never heard back about it 8 years later so maybe I'm still on it?
    Privately (pre-covid) it took 5 months for me to see a consultant and another almost 3 to get an appointment for a minor operation.
    Currently waiting 3 months for a different referral and still haven't heard anything back. That's while we pay the same amount per person for the HSE as the UK pays for the NHS and I pay €2k+ per year for insurance.
    The NHS is by no means perfect but they would get quite a shock if they had to put up with what passes for a health service down here. Having to wait a couple of days for a GP appointment, can you imagine!? :pac: Then not having to pay for whatever prescription you're given. God love them.

    All that said there's plenty of other reasons I wouldn't be in a hurry to move north. Sometimes I look at the houses 5 miles away and the car I could drive for a tiny amount but there's plenty of ahem, cultural downsides.

    If it's taking 5 months to get seen by a consultant and 3 months for a minor operation on private health insurance you're either very unlucky, have terrible health insurance or not being referred properly by your GP/initial consultant.


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    #55
    jimgoose
    Registered Users Posts: 20,176 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »
    ...Inhospitable, derelict places, such as Northern Ireland...

    I wouldn't call most of Norn Iron-istan inhospitable or derelict, quite the opposite. Urban or rural, it has a polished, tidy sort of "Britishness" to it. Even the roughest of places - I'm talking the Fountain/Kennedy St. area of Derry, Falls Road and Shankill in Belfast - are noticeably clean, tidy and well-maintained.


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    #56
    Chris_5339762
    Registered Users Posts: 5,857 ✭✭✭Chris_5339762


    griffdaddy wrote: »
    If it's taking 5 months to get seen by a consultant and 3 months for a minor operation on private health insurance you're either very unlucky, have terrible health insurance or not being referred properly by your GP/initial consultant.


    I know someone with Parkinsons... a family friend.... they have been told 9 months to see a consultant for a first appointment. And this is private, with severe pushing from the GP.


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    #57
    Muahahaha
    Registered Users Posts: 19,615 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    jimgoose wrote: »
    I wouldn't call most of Norn Iron-istan inhospitable or derelict, quite the opposite. Urban or rural, it has a polished, tidy sort of "Britishness" to it. Even the roughest of places - I'm talking the Fountain/Kennedy St. area of Derry, Falls Road and Shankill in Belfast - are noticeably clean, tidy and well-maintained.

    Yeah would agree, the public realm in Northern Ireland is a fair bit more organised and cleaner than here. Theyve much better signposting, even minor roads in rural areas will have a sign at the bottom of it telling you what the name of the road is. Councils seem very proactive in keeping things like bus shelters and footpaths clean with regular scheduled powerwashing whereas here the same are left go to sh1te before any cleaning gets underway, if at all.


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    #58
    Rugbymad2020
    Registered Users Posts: 279 ✭✭Rugbymad2020


    I’ve moved the whole family to NI and it’s the best decision we ever made.2yrs in Bangor currently and it’s 100 times better than down south.more for kids to do,people are friendlier,prices are better.


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    #59
    Lex_Luthor
    Registered Users Posts: 24 ✭Lex_Luthor


    Hi all,

    I had been thinking about this for a while, moving to Belfast or elsewhere up North.


    I am from Dublin, worked years away in Switzerland and Germany. Returned to Dublin end of 2017 thinking that would be that, after 2 years of renting sub-standard accommodation for high price, headed back to a good job in Switzerland. I had been thinking another 2-3 years away and come back and buy in Dublin, however that is not looking likely. Crazy the housing situation in Dublin and to a lesser extent outside Dublin.

    I visited Belfast a couple of times and really liked it, got an edge and a good vibe which suits me more than where I am now. It has great transport connections to Dublin and an airport.
    The company I work for has offices in UK, so they would be a chance to stay with them (I like working for company) and wfh on a UK contract in Belfast. It would not be possible to get an EU contract, I would have to leave.
    Company would pay private health insurance too.


    So any of you made the move and it has worked out well?


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    #60
    gmisk
    Registered Users Posts: 32,034 ✭✭✭✭gmisk


    mariaalice wrote: »
    Also no in Aldi in NI.
    No Aldi...but they have Sainsburys....Asda etc


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    #61
    NIMAN
    Registered Users Posts: 33,123 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Rugbymad2020 wrote: »
    I’ve moved the whole family to NI and it’s the best decision we ever made.2yrs in Bangor currently and it’s 100 times better than down south.more for kids to do,people are friendlier,prices are better.

    What did you do for work?
    Are you a WFH person?


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