Every country has it’s pros and cons and only by personal priorities you can choose if it’s for you or not. Here are my 5 cons about Ireland:
1. Very expensive first year of car insurance
The price of a car insurance depends on many variables which can include:
- insuring a car for the first time
- owning a full Irish driving licence
- having a no claim bonus
- years of driving experience
- the car engine capacity
- years of driving licence held
- additional driver on the car
- the insurance company
- etc.
Lets say, for an example, you have a full Irish licence and don’t have “no claim” bonus, the car is 1.0 engine, you have no experience and you got your full Irish driving licence 1 month ago. In that case your first insurance could vary between 1800€ and 2500€ (currently is a bit cheaper than what it was just few years ago when it was staring from €2500 up, this changes all the time).
If you have EU driving licence the price could go €100-€200 or more up. I would suggest you exchange it for an Irish one, it is pretty easy process and cost only €55. Book an appointment online to the closest to you NDLS center.
If you have a “no claim” bonus (depending on how many years), for each year the price can go down drastically. They even accept a “no claim” bonus from your home country but only if you had a car insured in your own name and you had no accidents (currently only Liberty insurance accepts this, translation in English is obligated). Make sure you get that before you come to Ireland, if you had a car back home (contact your insurer and ask them what is the process of providing that proof). After you get to around 9+ years of “no claim” bonus your insurance price gets to the minimum and doesn’t go cheaper anymore (depending on the insurer but around €300-€400). I would suggest to try Chill.ie, they give you a few insurance company options, from lowest to highest price (choose the cheapest and go directly to that company site to see if they give you even cheaper). Always check as many insurers as possible to get the best offer.
Often times if you add a second driver on the car who has many years of driving experience, or “no claim bonus” and full Irish licence, the price can also go down €100-€300.
Another very big difference between my country and Ireland is that you insure yourself on the car here, not the car only, this is why nobody else can drive it unless they are also insured on your car as a additional driver or if they have insurance in their own name for another car and are covered for driving other cars.
The positive part of this point is that the second hand cars here are much cheaper than in the countries with left hand drive because the market for right hand drive cars is much smaller in Europe. You can get a decent older car (2003-2005) for €2000.
2. Unpredictable weather with pretty short “summer”
You might not get bothered with this part for the first few years of your arrival as everything is new and exciting, but when you get settled in it might start getting on your nerves.
I myself am used to a weather with 4 seasons in Bulgaria and Croatia where Ireland, in my opinion, has only 2 seasons which I wouldn’t consider as summer and winter, but more likely as spring and autumn. Since I really love the summer and even in my home country I struggled getting through the cold months I do miss the hot weather here and do not mind the cold months as they are not too cold. Also, if you are a person who likes camping like myself and the forecast shows you a sunny weekend, but you arrive at your destination and it rains the whole time plus this doesn’t happen for the first time, you might decide not to follow anymore and just go with the flaw. The winds in Ireland are very strong and changing directions all the time so it’s almost impossible to prognose the weather precisely. I would suggest if you go camping always take a winter jacket with you, yes you read correctly WINTER jacket! Even if it’s sunny and hot as soon as clouds get in the way or the sun goes down most of the time you will be freezing.
This point for some of you wouldn’t be a big deal if you are a man and prefer cooler weather but surely will frustrate you when it messes up your plans time after time.
3. Super expensive and hard to find accommodation
Because of the large amount of foreigners coming into the country for the last over 10 years, Ireland is overcrowded and the prices got higher and higher. Many people share accommodation with others in order to save on that part (including my husband and myself) which is really unusual in our home countries as a married couple but you don’t want to spend all of your money on rent. Singles pay even more as they don’t share the cost with their partner. When you are younger this might not be a big deal breaker for you but when you get older it surely will start being important for you. Currently a single room cost between €600-€800 (depending on the location) and double room for two between €900-€1200. A studio between €1400-€1700 and a house between €1800-€2300. These are the prices without the bills and on top of that the first rent is double the monthly amount as half of it is for the deposit.
Bare in mind that people who live in the same place for 5-10 years they probably have much cheaper rent just because the prices back then where lower and the landlord could not increase them more then 2% per year, so that is the reason why.
Also, finding a place to live is a stress and exhaustion on another level. First of all, the amount of available accommodations is extremely limited. Second, on each ad applies very high number of people. Third, the required documentation you need to have is ridiculous (just a few to mention: previous landlord reference, employment letter, bank statement, payslips, ID, etc.), not everyone is asking for all of that but almost everyone (especially the agencies) and please tell me if you just arrived in Ireland how are you supposed to have a previous landlord reference?!
The places to search for accommodation usually are Daft.ie and Facebook Marketplace (be very careful, especially with Facebook as there is also scams so never give money upfront or without seeing the place and getting the key first). If you can’t find a place there, for beginning you can try through AirBnB which is much more expensive but maybe more possible to get or as a last option I would suggest a hostel (not recommending from my personal experience but if you have no other choice the one I’ve been to is Abbey Court Hostel in the city center).
4. Inconvenient public transport
If you are working early morning or late night shifts you might need to find accommodation close to your job or vice versa. Most buses in Dublin (as example) don’t drive during the night. The first morning buses usually start around 5:30-6am and the last buses finish around 11:30pm which doesn’t make much sense for a country with a lot of jobs in shifts, very expensive taxis and rainy/windy weather for commuting by bike. In Bulgaria and Croatia for example the public transport is 24/7, yes it is not so often during the night as during the day but still exist.
Recently the government is trying to introduce some night hours for few of the Dublin bus lines but still not enough.
5. Lack of coffee places and restaurants with an open area
Again, coming from a country with a proper summer where we have many places to sit and have a cup of coffee or eat outside in Ireland this is not very popular. It is completely understandable that the weather is not allowing it here and there is no point of investing in outside tables when there won’t be a big use of them. Imagine the weather changes every 15min in the day and they have to take care of the tables and chairs non stop. This personally didn’t bother me first few years but after awhile watching friend’s posts being out and about in the sun and having fun I started missing that.
Another thing are the bars being open only until 2-3am and no matter how many people are there or how good the part is they switch on the lights and the bodyboards start pushing people to the exit. In my home country the bar works until the party is good, even if that means till 10am the next day. Seems like they don’t care of taking your money here as they earn enough where in my home country every cent is welcome. I think it might be forbidden by the law to be open after 2-3pm. Also, really funny part for me are security guys going around with mops and cleaning as soon as someone spills a drink, you can see mops in every corner in night clubs 🙂 and I am sure it’s because of the crazy insurance money people claim if they fall or slip.
There might be more cons that these but I hope they are enough to make up your mind of coming here or not 🙂