I just had a look at the numbers, UK vs IE you're about 10% worse off in Ireland in terms of take home pay. Then as you say, you need to pay another X grand on health insurance. That's a pretty raw deal.

What a crappy system, to simultaneously make it great for corporations and bad for workers.

There have to be some other major upsides that I'm not understanding. It's a pretty country, that's something :)