‘For the company it doesn’t matter where you are’

‘I haven’t bought the ticket back yet’

summer. The summer is beautiful in Austria and I haven’t seen my parents in a long time.

‘And as a country you’re still here more or less on lockdown.

‘Austria is at a bit of a different stage at the moment; you’re actually allowed to go to restaurants, there’s a bit more of a social life.’

Federica Ramondino from Italy is in a similar situation. She has only been living in Ireland for six months so knows little about the country out of lockdown.

She works in business development in Oracle, a computer software company that employs over 1,400 at its Dublin offices.

‘I’m basically going back to Italy now for the whole summer,’ she says. ‘Since we can work remotely from wherever we want to I’m just going to be with my family for a couple of months now.

‘I’m planning on coming back the first days of September, but we’re probably going to be working from home for a bit longer after that as well.

‘Honestly, in all tech companies that I know of everybody is doing the same. We’re all going back home for the summer, it just makes sense to be with your family after all of this.’

Jeremy Leman from Lille in France says the crisis has prompted him to make the move back home for good, something he had wanted to do for a long time.

He has lived in Ireland for 14 years and works as a tech support engineer in an American software company with an office in Dublin.

‘It’s much better [in France], stuff is open,’ he said. ‘The pubs are already open so they will lighten the restrictions in the coming weeks. [It’s] better weather and I’ll be able to go out and do stuff so win/win. For the company it doesn’t make a difference wherever you are. As long as you’re working, it’s fine.’

Dr Nicol Van Dyk, his wife Eulogy and four-month-old baby Nicolas are heading back to their home country of South Africa for a few months because his dad is unwell. He says they are ‘embracing’ the flexibility that the lockdown has afforded them in terms of working from home and his employer has been very supportive.

They lived in the Middle East before coming to Ireland and have only been living here for six months since Nicol took up a job with the IRFU doing research to drive clinical incentives to mitigate risk of injury to players.

‘There is so much uncertainty at the moment so we’re embracing that and will try and get back as soon as we can,’ he said.

‘I’d be working remotely even if I stayed in Ireland. It’s great that we can go.’

Katlin Otsa from Estonia has been living in Dublin for 11 years and has a strong northside accent to prove it.

She works in SSE Electricity but doesn’t expect to be back in the office until August so is going back to Estonia for the summer to see her family and friends.

‘It takes me three hours every day to go to work and come back, so for people like myself they just let us work from home,’ she said. ‘So I was just like, I may as well go to Estonia and see my family. I’m going to be there until they call me and tell me that the office is open.

‘I don’t have a date, I haven’t bought the ticket back yet.’

With uncertain office return dates and cheaper housing abroad or outside of Dublin, one can’t help but wonder if this way of working could become a more long-term alternative for businesses in the future.

Others had to prepare themselves to say goodbye for a much more indefinite period.

English language students who came here on a work and study visa and were working in the hospitality and childcare sector before the coronavirus crisis hit, have undoubtedly been disproportionately affected.

It was an emotional goodbye between two sisters, Viviam and Thais Evol, from Brazil at the airport as Viviam left to go back home. Thais, 28, came to Ireland to study English six years ago and met and married an Irishman named Sean.

‘It was the best decision I ever made,’ she says.

Her sister Viviam, 21, followed her over and like many other English language students, worked as a childminder during her time here. ‘Two years and a half ago [aged 18], I came to Ireland,’ she said. ‘I had a lovely time, I came here to learn English but I learned so much more for the rest of my life.

‘Brazil is suffering a lot now as well so the currency exchange was being really hard for us.

‘It was really expensive to keep myself here. It affected me in this way because I wasn’t able to get a job, I wasn’t able to do anything.’

For those who didn’t qualify for the weekly Covid-19 payment — either because they haven’t been here long enough or were without a PPS number — they have little other solution than to go back home.

Raquel Ioronha, 40, from San Paulo, Brazil worked as a childminder before Covid hit but didn’t qualify for Covid payment as she wasn’t registered for tax.

She has been living in Ireland for over a year but is leaving before her visa expires because with no work she has no other option. ‘I was a childminder,’ she said. ‘Since the quarantine [started] I lost my job and because of this, I [have to] go back to Brazil.

‘It’s a big step. I had to leave my family, my life that I had in Brazil and move here. I made a lot of friends here, Irish friends and Brazilian friends, I hope to come back soon to Ireland.’

Still, even those who were receiving the payment say the challenges that come with the high cost of rent and living in Ireland brought ‘too much uncertainty’ which has cut their time short.

Andrey Galo and Milena Cia from Brazil have been working and studying in Ireland since last October and were able to receive the Government’s Covid payment. In Brazil, Andrey worked as a mechanical engineer and Milena was a foreign trade analyst but in Ireland they picked up jobs working in IKEA and the Clayton Hotel on the Burlington Road, respectively.

‘We love it here. We will miss it so much,’ says Andrey. ‘Ireland’s an amazing country, with amazing people. We were not expecting to leave soon. It’s how things are right now, there’s nothing we can do about this coronavirus.’

They thought they would stay a year and a half but are leaving after eight months as they say it is important for them to be with their family in coronavirusstricken Brazil. ‘We have family in Brazil so things there aren’t so good,’ says Milena. ‘We can’t stay here any longer. [There is] too much uncertainty.’

As Brazil’s coronavirus figures still rise daily — with over 800,000 confirmed cases and more than 40,000 deaths — the pull of family caught in the middle of that battle sometimes makes the decision for them.

Friends Vanessa Frioli and Verena Raymundo from San Paulo, Brazil, have been living in Limerick since early last year. They both studied English and were marketing advisers in the language school where they studied. ‘My family has health problems and I need to go to help my parents,’ says Vanessa.

‘In Brazil, there are a lot of cases so I decided to go back. We are going to start a new life in Brazil, again.’

Verena says: ‘We love here, we love everything in Ireland. We are just going back to Brazil because this situation is happening now. It’s better we go to stay close to our family.’

The things they will miss most about Ireland? ‘Beautiful places, the Irish people, the culture, and Tesco!’

New couple, Gabi, 25, and Theo, 23, from Croatia and France met outside a bar in Cork in January and are both currently unemployed because of the coronavirus. ‘I came for work,’ said Gabi. ‘I tried to save my money but I couldn’t because I went out. Your drinks are a lot more expensive here.’

Gabi was working in the Ashley Hotel in Cork which has been closed since March and Theo was in Cork to start his AFTA pilot training in April, which didn’t start because of the coronavirus. Now they are heading to Gabi’s native Croatia to see how things work out.

‘I’ve never been so it’s going to be interesting,’ said Theo.

For those who remain, many questions have yet to be answered — will the office environment change forever? Will there even be need for offices as we once knew them?

Will there be a mass exodus from Dublin, as many return to their home counties and work remotely? Will rents plummet and finally give people a leg-up to get on the housing ladder?

Will the virus Ireland change forever?

‘We’ll miss the people, culture and Tesco!’