Wait until you move to your new country and discover that you need a local bank account to get a local phone number, but you need a local phone number to open a bank account.
Yes Ireland has this too. It's frustrating. They don't have a population registry so proof of address is a 'utility bill'. But to sign up for utilities you need a bank account which requires proof of address. Well you get it.
Also relying on something from a commercial entity that's so easy to fake is weird.
It's sometimes the case in the US as well. When I got my RealID driver's license I had to show some sort of utility bill as a proof of address--which, as you say, could be pretty easily faked.
I recently did this and had two utility bills. But two isn't accepted so I was given an affidavit form where I wrote down that I was who I claimed to be.
It was pretty ridiculous. I already had a passport, other state DL, SSN, and birth certificate. The points for proof of residence are the dumbest part of RealID.
Someone I knew had some rigamarole to get their kid his first license because he didn't have any utility bills or whatever to prove his address. :-/
There's this weird thing that de facto you need state residency and a permanent address to live "normally," have government ID, etc. but there's not AFAIK any actual specific legal requirement to have same.
