arsenal21

The British lumpenproletariat do like their 2 weeks in Ibiza or Costa del Sol though, and there is no guarantee that they won't need visas for that in a few years time.

The common travel area between Ireland and UK existed before they joined the EU so will most likely stay in place after Brexit.

The freedom of movement enabled by the EU was also instrumental in allowing peace to flourish in Northern Ireland.

Good question, I'm not a lawyer so I can't say for sure, but the tax office did use info taken allegedly illegally from a Swiss bank a few years ago to pursue German-resident tax cheats, and the courts said it was ok.

The states don't have carte blanche anyway. Article 6 gives necessary conditions, not necessary and sufficient. For example, Ireland's ID card scheme got shut down as an example of governmental informational overreach.   And the parish or diocese or church in Poland or Italy does not HAVE to release the data because the German government wants it. If they do release it, I think they would be in breach of GDPR, though I'm not a lawyer so I dunno.   I can't imagine that many religions would be happy about the German government knocking on their front door and asking about their members...

Yep, tax authorities can be fairly ruthless. But my understanding of GDPR is the parish, diocese or church should not release baptismal data unless requested by a subject.

The first one is arguable as there are a lot of caveats, the second one says the data should not be transferred outside the organisation (church) without the subject's approval.

You just fill a Kirchenaustritt form before you start work in Germany and they can't touch you.

  The parish where a person has been christened, assuming it's in Europe, has a data protection responsibility and should not release personal data without the person's approval.   This is particularly so when the data has been gathered on a minor, as most people are babies when christened.   The German tax authorities, as you mention, don't care about breaking other country's privacy laws, as the Swissleblower case showed.

  You only have to 'leave the Church' in Germany i.e. submit a Kirchenaustritt form. The Catholic church does not allow you to leave in general, once you're baptised, hence my Hotel California comment earlier.   Hopefully GDPR will put an end to the shameful practice of trying to shake down immigrants for Church tax.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the medical card will cover a lot of stuff that Irish health insurance will not e.g. cost of GP visits, so that could be a plus point for keeping the Barmer insurance.   You might be automatically eligible for a card on reaching 70 anyway.

Welcome back arundasi, hope you're getting on well in Ireland.   You look much younger than 60 in your profile photo ;-) but I found this info on the nurse's union website, saying EU over 60s may be eligible for a medical card.   https://www.inmo.ie/Article/PrintArticle/6551   I would suggest applying for a medical card in any case, it covers a lot of basic stuff.   https://www2.hse.ie/services/medical-cards/medical-card-application-process/what-a-medical-card-covers.html

You just have to fill a Kirchenaustritt form when you move to Germany and you're out, from a tax perspective.   Your soul, on the other hand, well it's like Hotel California - you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.  

  The last 5-6 winters have been relatively mild but before that there were a few years with lots of snow and some cold snaps when it stayed below 0 for weeks at a time.   According to the stats bureau there are about 700 Yanks and 500 Brits living in Leipzig and there are Irish bars with quiz nights etc.   https://english.leipzig.de/youth-family-and-community/foreign-nationals-and-migrants/migrants-integration-and-intercultural-activities-in-leipzig/#c70470   Property prices  have gone up a lot in the recent past so it might not be as cheap as you expect, though you will certainly find something for 1000 a month.   I don't know of any areas to avoid but there are some grim Plattenbau estates  like Grunau that I wouldn't like to live in.   If you like mountains then you should look further south e.g. Jena, as Leipzig and surroundings are all very flat.

How does the company you work for not know what you do on a daily basis? And anyway, they don't need to describe every last task, just give a general job description, projects worked on etc