EURES EUROPE · Transcript · · Updated
348 1105 Living and working in Ireland – Transcript
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- Ireland is located in the northwest of Europe and is divided politically into the Republic of Ireland in the south and six counties in the north which are part of the UK.
- The economy features high employment and participation rates alongside labor shortages across various sectors including science, engineering, technology, construction, transport, and healthcare.
- Living and working in Ireland involves practical steps such as obtaining a PPSN, registering for tax with the revenue commissioners, and opening a bank account with proper identification.
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and welcome to the next presentation which is Living and Working in Ireland. What we hope to do today is share some information about Ireland, our location, our culture and your opportunities that you will feel informed about your next decision about working in a country like Ireland.
We're going to give you some information that will help you to learn what to expect when you move to Ireland and some practical guidance on what it's like to work here in Ireland. So where are we? We are in the northwest of Europe. We are the furthest west in terms of the EU countries and politically we're divided into, if you can see us on the map there, we're tucked in behind the United Kingdom
and we have the Republic which is 26 counties in the south, the Republic of Ireland, plus six counties in the north which are part of the UK. We are a full and active member of the EU which means that you have access as an EU citizen to all the rights that you would have in every other European country.
To give you a closer look at how we are laid out, our capital city Dublin is in the east, our second capital and what some people would call the real capital in the southeast is Cork. We have Galway in the west and Limerick in the southwest and Warford in the southeast.
For an island we have a lot of airports, our four main airports are Dublin, Cork, Shannon which is just outside Limerick in the southwest and Knock which is up in Mayo west and north of Galway.
We have a number of regional airports including Farenford and in the southwest in Kerry and we do have some European flights that fly in there from Germany and from Portugal. What's interesting to note is that there are 19 airlines that operate direct flights from mainland Europe to Ireland so we're quite accessible.
To give you some information on our population, in April 2024 the statistics tell us that we had just short of 5.4 million people living in Ireland with a significant amount, 1.5 million living in our capital city of Dublin.
We have migration and emigration and a par with many countries. We as the Irish are well known for emigrating as well and we welcome quite a few immigrants to our country so we've a very mixed multicultural society here in Ireland.
To give you an idea of what the economy looks like, we are at our highest employment rate in the history of the state and our lowest unemployment rate in the history of the state with quite a high participation rate.
This makes it difficult in terms of the labour shortages and because we have so many people in work. It's a positive but there are challenges attached to it. When we talk about the labour shortages in Ireland, we have many in each of the sectors.
I'll give you a run through those. Science, engineering and technology would be a lot of software engineers, developers and many more roles in construction. We have all the typical roles available, project managers, quantity surveyors, planners.
Quite a few roles there. Transport and logistics. We're talking about supply chain and logistics. We're talking about drivers in all sectors, bus drivers, truck drivers. In health that we're talking about today, we're looking at nurses, home care, healthcare assistants, social care workers, domestic assistants and all the roles involved in all the organisations that deliver healthcare in any country and specifically in Ireland.
Financial roles and in other sectors then we have hospitality is a huge sector for us here in Ireland. Hospitality and tourism is particularly in the regions. We have something, I think the latest figure would be 260,000 people working in the hospitality and tourism sector in Ireland.
So we've vacancies there particularly in the professional roles and management roles in customer care but languages, sales agents, chefs, recruitment specialists, waiting cleaning staff. You name it, there are opportunities for you to avail of.
So why would you choose Ireland? The obvious thing is there are plenty of professional opportunities, space and time to develop your career. But the other things that make us a special place to live and work is that we are an inclusive and diverse society.
We look after our workers. Our minimum wage is one of the highest in the European Union at 13 euro 50 per hour. We offer very competitive salaries. We have national wage agreements that protect those salaries for our workers.
And we have a drier attention to a very specific organisation, the Workplace Relations Commission, which offers guidance for employers and employees alike on the roles and responsibilities in the workplace and the protection centre there.
Really, really useful resource to check if you have any questions about your working hours, your contract and how the legislation protects you and how that is monitored by government agencies. Of course we are the youngest population in the EU.
Our official languages are English and Irish. English being the language really of business. So you having a good proficiency in English is important for a lot of work, but it's also a really good opportunity to come here and improve your English language.
So what's in it for you when you come to work and live in Ireland? The professional growth opportunities, the quality of life. We have a strong work-life balance culture in Ireland and it is protected as I mentioned earlier by the legislation.
We enjoy our downtime, we enjoy our annual leave and we make the most of it. You can, as I mentioned earlier on, improve your English language skills, as it is one of our official languages. I mentioned the protections for work in law around working hours, vacation time, flexible working hours and personal time.
Of course our temperate climate is quite attractive to people who may find it too hot on the continent. Our scenic surroundings and our outdoor living opportunities, particularly outside of the cities. But you're so close to the cities you can join all aspects of Irish culture, being in the cities, being in the mountains, the beaches and the forest.
Hiking is a big out-of-pursuit area that people are very interested in in Ireland and surfing as well on the West Coast is very, very popular. We are renowned for our rich culture, our music, our arts, our literature, our theatre, our many sports.
We're a very sporting nation, our Gaelic games are our national games, but I suppose we're well known in the rugby circles as well and in horse racing. If you're interested in getting involved in your community sport is a great way, music is a great way and community is at the heart of what we do in Ireland.
Speaking about community and some of the practical considerations, accommodation is hard to source at the moment, particularly in our cities. We have a housing shortage and a supply and demand issue but we're working on that.
The government has a particular strategy in place to address that and we're moving slowly towards improving the options that are there. But in the short term it means that average costs are higher in the cities and there is short supply.
There are plenty of job opportunities in the regions and we would encourage you to look at all of those today across the 26 counties in Ireland which could mean that your options for accommodation are better and the costs are a little bit lower. The cost of living is a little bit higher but we have a higher average salary and of course the minimum wage.
It is, we are a little bit more expensive compared to some other locations but the compensation in our salary is there. There's some of the practical considerations. So when you find your job today, when you're ready to start work in Ireland, a couple of things to point you in the direction of.
Your point of contact is your local intro office to obtain a personal public service number or a PPSN that you need to start work in Ireland. You will need to register for tax with the revenue commissioners, the website there www.revenue.ie and you'll need to open a bank account.
To open a bank account you will need details of your Irish address, a utility bill maybe to prove that a letter from employer, your driver's license, your passport to prove your identity. Once you have those three sorted you're well on your way.