Moving to Ireland: A First-Steps Guide for Expats

Ireland is, for a great many people, the lowest-friction move in western Europe. It is in the EU, it operates in English, its professional world is full of multinationals who recruit internationally as a matter of routine, and the culture is welcoming in a way that is not merely a tourist-board claim.

Then there is housing, which is a genuine national crisis and the single largest thing standing between you and a comfortable first year.

Both of those are true at once, and any honest guide has to hold them together.

The right to stay

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens may live and work in Ireland with no permit required.

British citizens have their own arrangement. The Common Travel Area predates the EU and survived Brexit, and it allows British and Irish citizens to live, work, study and access services in each other’s countries. If you hold a British passport, Ireland is about as simple a move as exists.

Other nationalities generally need an employment permit - the Critical Skills Employment Permit is the flagship route, aimed at occupations on a shortage list and offering a faster path to longer-term residence, alongside General Employment Permits and intra-company transfers. There are also study routes, family routes, and permission for the spouses of certain permit holders. After arriving you register with the immigration service and receive a residence permission.

Note that Ireland is in the EU but not in the Schengen area, which matters for travel planning and for visa requirements if you intend to move around Europe. Current routes are in the Ireland visa section, and the general permit architecture is in visas and residence permits explained.

The PPS number

Your first errand. The Personal Public Service number is Ireland’s identifier for tax, social welfare, healthcare and public services. You need it to be taxed correctly - without it, emergency tax rates apply and your first payslips will be painful - and to access most systems.

You apply after arriving, with identity documents, proof of your Irish address and usually a reason such as a job offer or employment contract. The proof-of-address requirement is where the housing problem bites first: a hotel is not an address, and some short-term lets do not produce the kind of documentation the process wants. This is the Irish version of the deadlock described in registering your address abroad.

Then set up Revenue access to manage your tax credits, because getting your credits allocated correctly is what stops the emergency tax.

Healthcare, which surprises people

Ireland’s system is not what visitors from other EU countries expect.

GP visits are generally paid for out of pocket, at a per-visit fee, unless you qualify for a medical card or GP visit card based on income, age or circumstances. There is no free-at-the-point-of-use family doctor service for most working-age adults. People from the UK or from most of continental Europe consistently find this jarring.

Public hospital care is subsidised and available to residents, with charges in some circumstances. Waiting lists for non-urgent treatment have been a long-standing problem, which is why a large share of the population holds private health insurance - it is a normal middle-class expense here rather than a luxury, and employers often contribute.

Budget for GP fees and consider private cover as part of your cost planning rather than an optional extra. Details in the Ireland healthcare section, and the general framing in public versus private healthcare.

Money and tax

Irish income tax is progressive and reaches its higher rate at a relatively modest income, with additional charges layered on top - the practical effect is a marginal rate that arrives sooner than newcomers expect. Against that, tax credits reduce the bill and are worth ensuring are correctly applied.

Ireland’s corporate tax regime is why so many multinationals are here, which in turn is why the professional job market in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick is genuinely international. For individuals, the relevant thing is that salaries in technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and financial services are strong by European standards.

Structure is in the Ireland tax section, and the residence principle in tax residency explained. Note also that Ireland uses the concept of domicile alongside residence, which can affect the treatment of foreign income and inheritance for people with ties elsewhere - worth a conversation with an accountant if that describes you.

Housing

I will not soften this. Dublin rents are high, supply is short, and a listing can attract dozens of enquiries within hours. Deposits plus first month plus the practical need for temporary accommodation while you search make the first two months expensive. Rent Pressure Zone rules cap increases in designated areas, which helps sitting tenants more than new arrivals.

What actually helps: arrive with temporary accommodation booked for several weeks; have your document pack ready to send within minutes of a viewing; look at Cork, Galway, Limerick and commuter towns where the market is less brutal; and be alert to fraud, because a shortage always breeds it - rental scams and how to avoid them applies squarely here.

Also budget realistically overall. The combination of high rent, GP fees, private insurance and generally high grocery and service prices makes Ireland an expensive country to set up in, and the arithmetic in budgeting your first six months abroad is worth doing properly.

Settling in

The social side is the easy part. Irish sociability is genuine, the pub functions as public living room rather than merely a bar, and English removes the language barrier entirely - which makes Ireland unusually easy for building a life quickly.

Two adjustments. The weather is mild, grey and wet rather than cold, and the shortness of winter daylight catches southern Europeans out. And Irish English has its own vocabulary and indirection - a “grand” that means anything from excellent to barely acceptable - which is charming and occasionally genuinely confusing.

What catches people out

Emergency tax before the PPS number and credits are sorted. Discovering that GP visits are paid. The gap between the salary that made the move attractive and what is left after Dublin rent. And assuming that because everything is in English, the systems will work the way they do at home - they frequently do not.

The obvious comparison next door is moving to the United Kingdom, which shares the language and the Common Travel Area but sits outside the EU with a very different immigration system.

County-level detail, current permit routes and cost breakdowns are in the Ireland country guide and the cost of living section. For the current rental situation in a specific city, the housing and rentals forum is where people report what is actually working.