urban / environmental planning

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

As Irish citizens, you have the right to live and work anywhere in the EU.  So, assuming you can get work, apart from registering at the Town Hall within 5 days of arriving, then there are no administrative barriers to you taking it up.  Amsterdam is a nice city, but very expensive, probably as bad as London, but you'll be used to that.

Just to clarify, if you are not an engineer or a designer, what role do you play in "planning (consents) consultant"; I ask because planning is by default a regulatory environment that differs between every country, so what experience and/or qualifications do you have to work in Holland?

Also, you mention you have family living in Holland, they can be a great source of information.  How is your Dutch, you'll need to speak it if you want to simplify the job seeking process, especially if you're looking for any customer-facing job?  Many of the agencies that would normally be looking for people such as yourself will probably hang up the phone the moment they realise you don't speak Dutch and aren't available to start work tomorrow.  I can't overemphasise how important it is to speak the local language to get that good job.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team