Help! Should I move home to Ireland??

Mazcro !
Good luck on finding the right solution.
See the bright side of it all ! You are in neighbour countries :-) If you were from Australia and Ireland, it'd be much more difficult :-)

Mazcro,  don't do it! I lived abroad for over seven years, moved home over ten years ago and am now considering a permanent move to Canada after qualifying as a social worker. I moved overseas in the 80's when things here were bad but this is worse, at least then we did not have personal debt because the banks would not lend us money but now people are so over they're heads in debt it's quite depressing.  My sister is married to a lovely Welsh guy and they live in England and cannot get over the cost of living here, its scandalous.  Many people who returned to Ireland to live are leaving again.  I'm leaving with a young child, I just do not want to stay here and it is going to get worse.  The global downturn is one issue but the corruption of the banks has devastated the country they lent money to their own managers and they can't afford to pay it back so the Irish taxpayer has to bail them out. If you can secure a good permanent job then go for it but they are as scarce as hen's teeth!  There is no such thing as permanent work here now, even in my own line of work there is a major shortage of social workers but there is no employment, and I've checked out the UK it is not as bad as here.  The facilities are not much improved either although maybe Kilkenny is better off but the West of Ireland has seen no Celtic Tiger, I think he's hibernating or possibly he has emigrated as well!  Any info. you need contact me, no problem.

Can't you move to a different part of Wales?
I agree with what Katiemac has said, it is very expensive here now.
There are lots of place in the UK that aren't cities and you have the best of both worlds with coming over here for visits.

Living in Waterford County at the moment, I have to say if you need to find a job, now isn't going to be the time to find one in this area!
We do have an Educate Together school in the city if that appeals to you. Alternatively Waterford still has the highest number of same-sex schools run by the church.

House prices have gone down a lot. Feel free to buy ours as we're trying to sell. I don't want to raise my young daughters here, I see some things here I don't want her growing up with.

Celtic Tiger was the worse thing to happen in Ireland, quite honestly.

It's a really hard call. Economically it's seriously FUBAR here at the moment, but if you want to be here then maybe it could happen. I definitely wouldn't move without a job as it could take months to sort something out. Or could just happen overnight as it has done for some people.
Hidden costs? Everything costs here. Seriously in 7 countries, this is the worst and I'd count NYC and Sydney in there as well as developing countries. People have no sense of value or worth - most people that is, not everyone.
If your heart wants to be here, then come but be aware that money will probably become the thing you think about the most once you land here. Good luck!

I moved here from Germany 4 years ago for my partner and thankfully have a permanent job (let's see how long that'll last...), but I still can't get over the cost of living, despite the falling prices. Both of us have reasonable jobs, but buying a house (ever?) seems out of our league completely. We have a little daughter of 13 months and the biggest cost by far apart from rent is her childcare (and she is minded by her aunt!) I just heard the stats that Ireland has the highest childcare costs in the EU and the third highest in the OECD. Not exactly hidden costs, but if you have noone with small children in your circle of friends you might not be aware of this. Here in Dublin, childcare is anything from 800 to 1200 €/month, and obviously you don't want just any unqualified person minding you child in a converted garden shed decorated with Barney...