No need for the snark - salaries in Europe are a different story compared to the USA (aside from Switzerland perhaps); you can find some data here: http://www.payscale.com/research/IE/Location=Dublin-Dublin/S.... Of course, you are not the only one wondering what is going on with that: http://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-salary-range-of-software-pro..., http://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-salary-of-software-engineeri....
A salary of €40,000 results in a monthly take-home of about €2,540 (http://ie.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php) - plus pension, which is a fairly good salary in a city like Dublin for a developer at the beginning of his career (of course you would starve in SF with the same money!).