Well they're idiots because there are plenty of really well-paying job in the tech industry.
You expect to walk into an 80k a year job straight out of college? Everyone has to start somewhere. If I was a graduate, I'd much rather be working sub 30k for IBM than sub 40k for Dublin's next Groupon killer/Airbnb for iguanas.
And I can walk into an 80k job outside of Dublin. Considering the cost of living in Dublin vs the salary for tech grads versus... anywhere else in the world, you'd be crazy to stay.
London, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris... all way, way more expensive than Dublin.
But if you can find a job that will pay 80k euro equivalent to a graduate with a computing degree from a Dublin university and zero industry experience, you should definitely take it, 100%, and I wish you the best of luck.
Describing people who want to do this as 'idiots' was too harsh of me. It just makes me sad to see young people leaving the country.
From a brief google, Tokyo looks comparable to Dublin, but the others, yes. However, I wouldn't take a job for 30k living in any of those cities either, that's just nuts. However, it is absolutely possible to get jobs in places where your ratio of cost of living to salary is better than it is in Dublin, even before you factor in how much more you would take home before you end up paying the nuts VAT rates, PAYE, PRSI, USC charges that push you into almost 53% tax at 32k euro. I moved to Edinburgh when I graduated, and forgetting about my salary, my rent is a good 300 euro less a month, my transport bills are lower, I live in a nicer flat than I did before, and general costs of living are lower than they were in Dublin. I have more disposable income than I would have had on the same salary, and the ballpark offers that I have received here are the same as, if not better than home.
The reddit thread in [1] has plenty of people who came out at over 80k euro starting salaries. I'm not saying that everyone can get it, but there are some available.
http://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/1oiwc2/ne...
I ended up moving to Canada where I earn the equivalent of 36k euro working in a startup. I would say that living expenses are comparable.
In my case I could move from Dublin to Silicon Valley and make 30% to 50% more cash and pay way less in taxes, I would be an idiot to not consider it.