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Part of the attraction: scenery like that of the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare.

ROLLINGNEWS.IE

By Ray O’Hanlon

[email protected]

Many Americans are in Ireland this month enjoying often long-planned vacations in their ancestral homeland.

Some of them are hankering to stay.

And those Americans wanting to retire to Ireland are urging changes in current financial requirements that make it impossible for many of them to meet the Irish government’s annual income rules.

Two petitions are now seeking signatures in support of the effort to lower the financial bar for residency. In response to the calls from this side of the Atlantic, and questions being asked in the Dail, mainly by Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd, the Irish government has undertaken a review of the requirements starting with a “consultation phase.”

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Details of the review are being made available on the website of the Irish Naturalization and Immigration Service (INIS) and “interested parties” are being asked to submit views to a dedicated email address.

The two U.S. based petitions are urging the Irish government’s Department of Justice and Equality to change the current financial stipulations for Americans wishing to retire to Ireland.

The petitions are primarily on behalf of people who have ancestral ties to Ireland, but links that are not recent enough to qualify for Irish citizenship. Non-Irish Americans are also able to sign on.

Under current regulations, retirees from non-European Economic Area nations who want to retire in Ireland need an annual income of $55,138, or €50,000. A couple would need $110,276, or €100,000.

Both well exceed the average annual income in the Republic which is just over €40,000.

One of the petitions, the existence of which was frist reported on IrishCentral.Com, was drawn by Elthea Stiegman, the other by Kevin Callaghan, initially under the nomme de plume of “Annie Moore.”

“We are just ordinary people just looking to be happy in our golden years. Why should anyone anywhere not have a dream of that?” Stiegman told IrishCentral.

“To me I am going home to take the place of my great-grandparents who had to leave Ireland during the Famine in order to survive. I guess in a way it is my way to pay back my heritage and go to a place that I truly feel is home for me.”

Stiegman’s petition is entitled “Let Americans Retire in Ireland,” while Callaghan’s is “Help the Global Irish Retire to Ireland.”

Callaghan, who wants to retire to County Cork, and whose campaign has previously been reported by the Echo, takes the view that American retirees can move into parts of Ireland that are losing people to emigration.

The current Irish government position is based on concern that retirees with insufficient funds could end up as burdens on the State.

Retirees also need an additional capital lump sum to cover possible emergencies such as a health crisis, or nursing home care.

“All States, including Ireland, operate immigration controls for well-established reasons of public policy, including consideration of the economic impacts for the State,” Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald told Deputy O’Dowd in reply to a question.

“I requested officials in the Irish Naturalization and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department to review the current policy position regarding the migration of non-EEA retirees to Ireland. That review is underway. As part of the review process there will be a public consultation which will seek the views of stakeholders in relation to the review’s recommendations,” Fitzgerald said.

In addition to the petitions, light has been cast on the efforts of Americans to retire in Ireland by Jane Fadely from California who wrote a book about living in Ireland and then had to quit the country because it was deemed that she did not have enough money to stay.

Under an agreement drawn up a number of years ago between Ireland and the U.S., Americans can draw their Social Security entitlements while living in Ireland.