Well, I can assure you that Ireland is a total ripoff price-wise. Things are expensive, on the whole it wouldn't be a lot cheaper than CH but of course food is still quite a bit cheaper. Wages are relatively low and taxes are(well, were seven years ago) cripplingly high.

The infrastructure isn't a patch on CH either, so you don't even see what your high taxes are getting you.

To be honest, I find the Irish 'celtic tiger' success story totally baffling. I can't see where the wealth is coming from, other than an overinflated property market that will sooner or later collapse upon itself and high levels of retail spending on credit cards.

Low Eurozone interest rates have fuelled the credit culture but if Germany can ever recover to the point where they start raising interest rates to curb German inflation, Ireland will be f****d.


Gav