Originally Posted by scrum

Legally the country is officially called Ireland not Republic of Ireland and not Southern Ireland.

Originally Posted by Miss Eck

Quite a lot of us do call it Southern Ireland. Living in the UK I was commonly asked was I from the North or South - it seemed that was the only way some people differentiated between RoI and NI.

Nowadays there are plenty of mixed marriages (Catholic and Protestant) so I don't think you will have a problem.

Originally Posted by JAJ

http://www.bailii.org/ie/legis/num_a...22y1948.1.html

"2. —It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland."

Originally Posted by adiestubbs

Id be intersted to find out why, therefore, do irish passports say Ireland and not the ROI.

Originally Posted by JAJ

My understanding of the law is that the constitutional name of the state is "Ireland" but an acceptable statutory description of the state is "Republic of Ireland".

Originally Posted by adiestubbs

I was perhaps thinking that it was to do with (the now amended) claim of the government (Irish) to the whole of the "national territory" under the constitution (Articles 2 and 3).

That was changed in 1998, but anyone born on the island (inc NI) has a right to citizenship of the ROI, so perhaps saying "Ireland" is accurate.

Originally Posted by JAJ

Probably that inspired the original choice of name. Incidentally, since 1.1.2005 not everyone born there has a right to citizenship.

Originally Posted by scrum

Legally the country is officially called Ireland not Republic of Ireland and not Southern Ireland.

There are plenty of non catholic schools and the education system is good. If your children are under the age of 10 when you enrol them then they will have to learn Irish. Over the age of 10 and it's optional.

My Doctor charges 35 euro a visit but the out of hours doctor charges 50 euro.

A visit to A&E was 60 euro the last time we had to take a trip.

The rules on stamp duty vary. Some people are exempt. It depends on whether your a first time buyer or not and on the actual size of the property.

There is a national health service in Irealnd it's called the HSE (Health Service Executive) and is the equivalent to that in the UK. Obviously if you want private then that's not a problem either.

I am Irish and returned here from the UK 4 years ago. As regards the cost of living - things balance out.

Stamp duty - higher
Veh Reg Tax - higer
Council tax - none
Water rates - none
Car tax - higher
Uni costs - lower
Doctor - higher
Prescriptions - higher (you can get a card that limits the amount you pay (per family) for prescriptions in any one month)
Cars - specs not as good as the UK
Food/clothes - generally on a par

Any other questions - just contact me.

Trish

Originally Posted by adiestubbs

The most northerly part of the territory of Ireland is in the Republic, so calling it southern ireland is bit misleading. Imagine somebody from Tory island or Malin head, Donegal saying im from southern ireland!!

Originally Posted by Miss Eck

It is still 'Southern' Ireland not matter how far north it is. There is a difference between Southern and South. Peronally I prefer to call it Ireland but whilst living in the UK (or should that be England/Britain?) people for some reason would refer to it as North and South.

Originally Posted by scrum

Legally the country is officially called Ireland not Republic of Ireland and not Southern Ireland.

There are plenty of non catholic schools and the education system is good. If your children are under the age of 10 when you enrol them then they will have to learn Irish. Over the age of 10 and it's optional.

My Doctor charges 35 euro a visit but the out of hours doctor charges 50 euro.

A visit to A&E was 60 euro the last time we had to take a trip.

The rules on stamp duty vary. Some people are exempt. It depends on whether your a first time buyer or not and on the actual size of the property.

There is a national health service in Irealnd it's called the HSE (Health Service Executive) and is the equivalent to that in the UK. Obviously if you want private then that's not a problem either.

I am Irish and returned here from the UK 4 years ago. As regards the cost of living - things balance out.

Stamp duty - higher
Veh Reg Tax - higer
Council tax - none
Water rates - none
Car tax - higher
Uni costs - lower
Doctor - higher
Prescriptions - higher (you can get a card that limits the amount you pay (per family) for prescriptions in any one month)
Cars - specs not as good as the UK
Food/clothes - generally on a par

Any other questions - just contact me.

Trish

Originally Posted by joe sod

Ireland does not have rates as they do in britain, but i would not rule out this being introduced in the future. Alot of problems are now emerging with local authorities not being able to run local services, one instance of this was the contamination of galway citys water, largely the fault of galways city and county councils. Ireland also has a bad problem with illegal dumping as you will no doubt witness if you drive around the countryside. This is the result of very high bin charges (where people baulk at the idea of paying such high fees just to have their refuse collected), there is also huge variations in charges depending on the financial position of the local authority. In short i think central government will introduce some sort of rates in the future although it will be highly unpopular.
Also it is best not to use the term southern ireland, it has highly political conotations, just use the term ireland. The republic is 4/5 the area of the whole island, using the term southern ireland sounds like it is an entity similar to northern ireland which it isn't.