Whats the average cost of living in Ireland?
I’m currently back in Ireland on holiday and finding that the cost of living is a bit scary. I’m in the same boat (family of five) and making about 65k in Euro, which is way less than 65k in USD (the Euro is about 1.57USD today). House prices and rents are coming down and will be for the foreseeable future. But Dublin is a lot more expensive than its surrounding areas and that gap is likely to stay. You need to get beyond commuting distance before you see a sizeable drop in the cost of living. The free education (well, tuition anyway) is a big plus when you have several kids, but there seems to be a wide variety in the quality of schools. A car isn’t really necessary in the areas that have good train/bus routes. But the car is still very much a part of Irish life and car ownership is (I think) the world’s highest per capita. We’ve been in Wicklow/Wexford looking at the towns around here. Very different to Dublin. Somewhere like, say, Gorey in Wexford is far more affordable than Dublin.