Isole remote dell’Irlanda: solo 29 richiedono una sovvenzione di € 84.000 volte ad attirare i residenti nonostante l’attenzione in tutto il mondo
https://www.irishtimes.com/property/2025/04/02/irelands-remote-islands-only-29-apply-for-84000-grant-aimed-at-attracting-residents/
di SeanB2003
16 commenti
It’s almost as if fancy marketing campaigns don’t actually gloss over the harsh reality of living on a fucking island
Maybe it’s the right 29 rather than a bunch of romantic fools with nice hair.
If only we were allowed work remotely still…
First off €84k is not that much money. You can buy a house in Ireland for that money but it wouldnt be habitable. Its not actually that much money when you consider everything you’d have to do to be able to move.
Secondly. Who wants to live on an island on this part of the Atlantic Ocean? Yeah there’s beauty in the ruggedness but its still cold, wet, windy and fuck all to do.
Thirdly, its not like you hop into town for your shopping. That’s a literal boat trip to the mainland, to then drive into the city/town and then repeat it all on the way back.
Fourth, unless youre working from home see point three.
According to the article of the 29 that applied only 20 were even given the grant. A ~32% refusal rate. Article doesn’t state why they were denied, but seeing as the article quotes a man from one of the islands the scheme states you need to prove ownership of the property prior to applying. So you can’t apply to the scheme and if approved then buy a property.
And at a nearly 1 in 3 refusal rate that’s a big risk, combined with the isolation of the community you’d be in, and I can understand why they’ve had so few applications given the size of the marketing campaign.
The headline says “only” but how many were they actually expecting or hoping to take up an offer like this.
https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2023/0607/1387738-islands-policy/ suggests a population of 2,740 on the islands in question so 29 represents a potential 1% increase in population but in reality its probably 29 families so perhaps 60-100 people which would sound like a sustainable increase over the length of time the scheme has been open?
So I’d have to sell my house, buy something on an island off the coast, at some point I get 84,000 quid to live there. Internet isn’t great, no clue about schools or shops. I work remotely so I’m good there. But any time I have to do just about anything except walk the dog I’ve to drive onto a ferry then into a town then back onto the ferry and back to the island.
I’d rather not live in Father Ted. I’m surprised 29 people applied.
first i heard of it
I wish the government would stop doing everything possible to bring more English speakers into Irish speaking areas that we’ve spent millions of public money to preserve.
Unsurprisingly, people don’t want to live in an island with poor connectivity, services and infrastructure. And 84k is nowhere near enough to change that.
84k is fuck all if you’re moving into an unoccupied/derelict house
Aren’t they missing a 4 before the 8?
As one of the few people who this might make sense for.
(Family connection to one of these islands)
The death knoll for remote working means this will never happen for me.
Fully remote jobs are few and far between now, and with how quick the industry changed this approach I don’t think I’d even trust a fully remote contract now anyway. Certainly not enough to change my living circumstances to fully depend on it.
We looked at this. It wasn’t remotely viable. The price of houses on these islands had immediately folded in the price. Many of the islands didn’t have anything for sale. The cost of getting work done was astronomical.
You couldn’t pay me to live on a remote island off the coast of Ireland.
Many reasons for that, but a big one is that people cannot afford/do not trust after-the-fact grants from the government, which seems to be a perpetual source of amazement for a lot of people *in* government. They just can’t seem to imagine not being able to access 100-200k credit or cash just for something like this, or the risk that would represent to most.
The reality is most people cannot afford to bet everything they can raise on making massive lifestyle shifts in the *hope* they’ll *maybe, eventually,* some day get some money back on it, if the jobsworths involved in the process don’t fuck up or refuse it. Every scheme configured like this will fail to meet its goals, but it’s especially true in the context of the kind of folks island living would work for. Low footprint self sufficient crusty types do not have 84k they can chance going without for months, years, ever.
Lo and behold, despite the low uptake of this, nearly a third were refused. Who can take a one-in-three bet like that with their life savings?