With insurance, there is one deadline newcomers should know.
Health, home, car and life insurance are broadly straightforward. One special age rule, though, can become expensive after you arrive if you notice it too late.
Insurance pages are usually the dullest part of a moving project, and this one would be too, were it not for a rule that seems made for the typical reader of this site: someone over forty who is moving to Ireland. It is called Lifetime Community Rating, it applies to everyone who moves aged 35 or over, it has a nine-month deadline, and anyone who misses it pays more for up to ten years. That is why it comes first here.
The nine-month deadline
Irish private health insurance has no medical underwriting and no premiums priced by age; in principle everyone pays the same for the same product. So that nobody joins only once they fall ill, there is instead a loading for joining late: Lifetime Community Rating.
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Loading | 2% for each year of age over 34, on every premium |
| Duration | the loading is charged for at most 10 years |
| Who the deadline affects | anyone moving aged 35 or over; anyone younger pays no loading anyway |
| The exception for newcomers | anyone who takes out cover within 9 months of moving pays no loading |
Source: Citizens Information, Private health insurance (page last edited 22 August 2024); Health Insurance Authority, FAQ on Lifetime Community Rating. As of: checked 17 September 2026.
The deadline affects you if you move to Ireland aged 35 or over; anyone younger pays no loading anyway. Work it out for yourself once: someone who moves in their early fifties and lets the deadline pass carries a loading of two per cent for every year of age over 34, for years, on every premium. Take out the same cover in the first nine months and you never pay it. There are few pieces of advice on this site as clear as this one: put private health insurance on the list for the first weeks, not the first years.
Private health insurance
Why insure privately at all, when the public system is open to everyone? The honest answer is on the page on healthcare: the public system carries you, but it makes you wait, and private insurance above all buys time and choice. The market is regulated in the consumer’s favour: nobody may be refused because of age or state of health, switching between insurers is open, and the minimum benefits are set by law.
For scale: the average premium last stood at €1,950 a year per adult (Q2 2026). What your family actually pays depends on the plan and its cover; the range of products is wide, and comparing pays before you sign, not after.
Source: Citizens Information, Drugs Payment Scheme (as of 13 October 2026) and Hospital charges (as of 1 August 2026); Health Insurance Authority (average premium, Market Bulletin Q2 2026); GP fees have no official register, secondary source RTÉ, 28 March 2025. As of: charges checked 2 November 2026, average premium 23 October 2026.
Home and car
A family’s other policies are quicker to tell. Car insurance is compulsory by law and belongs with registering the car; expect the insurer to want to see your no-claims history from abroad, and bring the certificates from your previous insurer. Buildings and contents insurance is voluntary, and on a mortgaged house the lender will as a rule require buildings cover.
For both lines the same applies: we have not yet compiled solid, source-checked average premiums for the south-east, and so none appear here. On this site, unproven does not mean disproved; it means: get two or three concrete quotes before the move instead of planning with an internet average that would not survive a check of its source.
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