JON BERKELEY, a self-employed illustrator and designer, and his wife moved their family of four (now five) children to Barcelona six years ago. Their youngest, now four, was born there. Having holidayed in Spain many times, and having lived abroad in other countries, they decided Spain was the best place to raise their children.

“The climate is what really sold us,” says Berkeley. “The kids spend six months of the year outside and they amuse themselves. I also think it’s safer here for them. We live in a village about five kilometres south of Barcelona and we let the 13-year-old go into Barcelona on the bus alone to meet his friends. You couldn’t do that in Dublin.”

Six years ago, when for most people the internet was only in its infancy, it was harder to access information on moving abroad. Berkeley did all his planning and reconnaissance trips over the space of a year. His priority was to find suitable schools for his children, the eldest of whom is in an English-speaking international secondary school. In the end the schools determined where they lived. Looking back, he says he regrets not hiring an agency to help him with all the paperwork needed to start a new life in Spain, but the family was keeping to a strict budget.

“After you buy beds and other essential furniture,” says Berkeley, “you should buy a filing cabinet, because you are going to need it.” Every Spanish official, from the town clerk to the tax collector and bank teller, issues endless little receipts which must all be carefully filed. Woe betide the expatriate “who loses the little 1in by 2in scrap of white paper,” he says.

“That said, the bureaucracy is being streamlined every year. There isn’t quite as much paper as there was when we first got here, but the rigidity of the system hasn’t changed much.” The cost of living is still about two-thirds that of Ireland, he says, “but the prices of a lot of things are beginning to standardise”.

The outdoor lifestyle, cheaper food and heating makes up for the rising cost of housing and taxes, he says. “The social security system of benefits is not as generous or widespread as in Ireland. For example, there is no monthly child benefit payment.” His monthly social security contribution for hospital services, “which are very good”, is about €220 a month. “This is quite a lot, but GP care is free and medicines that are prescribed by the GP are heavily subsidised.” Property tax in their location is modest as is the annual charge for rubbish collection and water services.

Any family moving to Spain needs to set out their priorities from the start, says Berkeley. His children are now trilingual, speaking English at home and Spanish and Catalan at school and with their friends. The standard of living is not that much better or worse than in Ireland, he says, just different. It is the quality of life that attracted them in the first place.