Hi, advice on areas to relocate in RoI in 2025 appreciated. Moving with family and children (toddler and newborn so childcare/primary school a priority). Need to move to either Dublin or Limerick, and looking outside both cities for cheaper accommodation (rental) due to high prices. Some options we have considered:

1. Try to rent in Bray or Wicklow and commute into Dublin (finding a school place might be difficult?)
2. Try to rent in Limerick city or just outside (Adare?) Any other suggestions on Limerick areas appreciated - especially re. childcare availability/good primary schools
3. Rent or Buy (100-160k) in Northern Ireland while we prepare for the move. We'd spent this much in rent over 4-5 years in Dublin anyway. Try to commute down to Dublin if hybrid working became feasible. Or airbnb in Dublin and travel back on weekends for the first months. Would be hard but possibly easier childcare/school places and spouse would not need any proof of transfer to ROI and could keep UK working arrangements.

The last one needs more thinking through and confirmation of some work from home days. Thanks for any help or advice, i'm aware we might be overlooking many factors.

Other queries:
- If moving to ROI does spouse need a PPSN? Currently they're work from home anywhere in the UK and company would allow abroad working as well, but not sure whether if located in ROI they'd need this (same job, only change of location - they'd have British Passport).
- Read that some areas have seen quite a lot of antisocial behavior - from links on these threads - Balbriggan, Skerries etc - any sources of information that we could follow to see which areas might be most recently affected as this was from a thread in 2023. Or any updates or recent advice from personal experience would be very helpful.
- Housing market especially rentals seem extremely difficult with low housing stock and high demand. Suggestions for how we approach this would be great - i.e. come over 8 months in advance and start looking / base in N.I and travel down to view property or base there and put up with an insane commute for a few months until we are familiar with areas (if we plan long term to be in Dublin). We have some support network in N.I so could make it work if we had to...
- Any info on Limerick and surrounded appreciated as this is the location we know the least about.

Thanks

I haven't really been active here recently and there won't be too many users living in Ireland. Life in and around Dublin is no different to any larger city in the UK and there will always be better areas and parts that have the rougher type. To be honest, I have had no desire to go to Dublin recently and for me the real Ireland is exploring lakes, small villages, empty beaches, hiking the mountains or walking in the woods.
I have driven to County Louth recently but in general the East Coast between Dublin and Northern Ireland is not for me and too crowded for my liking. Don't get me wrong and the infrastructure is better, it's probably drier overall and has more amenities, but I value more of the natural beauty out West.

Limerick will certainly be a lot cheaper than Dublin and these days it's probably not a bad city compared to English cities, but very small in comparison. There are some beautiful areas not far from Limerick, like Killaloe where you have a huge lake on your doorstep. With kids a place like Ennis might not be bad and I know two people who ended up buying there and love it. Unfortunately your biggest challenge will be a finding a rental and today there were only 1,888 rental available across the whole Republic of Ireland. Your needs will be very different to mine and at the end of the day it comes down to budget, but renting or buying in Northern Ireland and commuting to Dublin sounds crazy and probably not pleasant.

A PPS number is needed for anyone dealing with or accessing public services, banking etc.
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/e...ervice-number/

Thank you so much, will check out Ennis!

Northern Ireland still has a certain stigma, mainly due to the history, but then there are also financial and budget considerations to any move to a new place.

The ROI is certanly not cheap, expect that mostly everything is more expensive than in the UK, plus certain things are simply missing: The Irish HSE is not as good as the NHS, public transport in Ireland isn't as good and as reliable as in the UK, I also think car insurance is also more than in the UK. Dublin bus, the bus service in and around Dublin seems not to adhere to time tables, they come as they like.

Housing and finding rental accomidation will be your biggest headache, childcare isn't cheap either, but the latter is also true for the UK as well.
The housing supply is kept artifically low to keep prices up. Whilst Birmingham or Manchester or Leeds are building many high rises, Dublin is to be kept a low rise city. Also public transport in and around Dublin is not sufficient for demand. Only two tram like trains called the LUAS and a commuter train called the DART, but that's it. The discussion to connect Dublin airport to the city with some kind of rail network is nearly 30 years old, and hasn't happened to date.

Media is sort of limited in the ROI, no big choice like freeview TV in the UK, and no DAB radio. Freesat TV from the UK can be picked up with small size dishes.

Security is sometimes a concern in Irish cities. Police are chronically underfunded and understaffed and often appear more like "nice guys" not some form of authority.

The only plus or plusses to the ROI would be that there is no council tax for renters, and no water meters, and the society is more child friendly. Public schools seem to be more realistic and better than in the UK. But that's about it.

Overall, I'd say, I would only consider the ROI if the job offer is more than good, or way to good to refuse.

I actually passed Ennis this weekend and they are regenerating the town centre: https://clarecoco.ie/services/capita...-public-realm/
Like any town, there are some parts that wouldn't be that great but nowhere near the depressing sites you would see across the UK and overall seems decent enough. Nice outskirts and can understand why families would choose to live there. You have schools, primary health care centre, plenty of supermarkets (Lidl, Aldi, Dunnes, etc.), excellent infrastructure with motorway to Limerick, train station, Shannon airport 30 mins away, nature reserve on your doorstep and only a short drive to Burren or beaches.

Of course people who value more concrete and huge cities might find it a bit boring but for it's size you have quite a lot. No doubt the war in Ukraine hasn't helped with housing as you can read here.
https://www.clare.fm/news/ukrainian-...re-population/

Ennis is nice, but you might also check out Tralee. Slightly longer distance from Limerick, but more beautiful in countryside, close to Dingle for outdoors stuff, hiking, etc...

Limerick can be a bit of a dump sometimes, expecially the Moyross area. You're well advised to stay out of Moyross.

Thank you so much for this feedback!

I can't speak for Dublin, pure culchie me, but Limerick suffers the same issues as most cities and the repuation of the past is past. It's a different place than the one I left, some things better, some things not, but if I were to move back home, I'd definitely be looking for somewhere within easy distance rather than the City itself. Everyone has their own priorities. Obviously there are differences in the way things are, but I have friends who moved from England (admittedly to Co. Wexford) several years ago and wouldn't dream of returning. Horses for courses.

Clare is a great county overall - particularly for the music! - and well within that touching distance of Limerick, but there are many, many options - the usual caveat is that if you look for a popular/touristy place, you'll pay more for less. As has been said, your issue will be that it's no longer easy to base yourself to check out the options, rentals are expensive and like hen's teeth. Take a trip and walk about the City, if you can, strike out in all directions just to check the lie of the land and see if it feels right. In the end, only you'll know what fits the bill. Good luck.