10 Things You Should Know About Retiring To Ireland

1. The climate is temperate, average 65 degrees in summer, 37 degrees in winter, but it rains a lot – about 150 days a year.

2. You can become an Irish citizen if you, your parents or grandparents were born there.

3. If citizenship is not an option, then you can stay three months after which you have to register with the Irish authorities, show your passport and bank statement and get what is known as a “permission to remain.”

4. The permission is usually granted if you can prove you are not a burden on the state. You need to renew permission every year, but once you are five years there it usually leads to another single authorization of five years and after ten years you can get permission to stay permanently.

5. There is a huge difference between settling in Dublin and rural areas. Prices are booming in Dublin and you will pay $400,000 for anything decent in property. Rural parts of Ireland are very different and good properties can be half that price.

6. Planning to work in Ireland? Tax rates are high. According to the Wall Street Journal single people will pay 20% on the first roughly $43,000 they earn and then 41% on the remainder of their income; US Social Security payments are often taxable.

7. Anti-social crime is an increasing problem. Though violent crime rates are low “petty crime and residential crime is much more common” and has risen in recent years, according to the US Department of State.

8. Ireland is not a very cheap destination. It ranked 34th out of 134 countries by the Economist.

9. Health care is a big issue, obviously. Here is what the American Embassy advises:

Of those Americans who are deemed to be resident, “determination is made between “medical card holders” and “non medical card holders”. Eligibility for a medical card is also determined by a means test. Those who are Irish citizens or are “ordinarily resident” are welcome to apply for a medical card if they think their income meets the requirements.

Those with medical cards receive nearly all medical care for free, while those without medical cards are: “entitled to free public hospital services but may have to pay in-patient and out-patient hospital charges. They are also entitled to subsidized prescription drugs, medicines and maternity and infant care services and may be entitled to free or subsidized community care and personal social services. They are not entitled to free GP services. They may be entitled to some community care and personal social services.”

10. Nice bonus – free transport is provided for all who are over 66 if they are living permanently in Ireland.

Source: citizensinformation.ie