lilpilot, thank you for the reply. I was referring to the fact there may be jobs in Ireland which UK citizens are no longer eligible to apply for as their UK EASA licence (valid for life at time of issue) has been rescinded and replaced with a UK licence, not a back-door into living and working elsewhere in the EU. Additionally there are jobs around the world, outside of the EU territorially, which require EASa licences.
To clarify, my main concern is for those who have completed EASA ground examinations and flight tests before 1/1/21 (in any EASA state), and were issued a valid for life EASA licence, but who now have ended up with a UK licence and are unable to get an EASA licence without re-doing it all. This includes those who always had a UK EASA licence, and those who transferred SOLI to a UK EASA licence, often as a condition of employment.
The ability to SOLI out of the UK before 1/1/21 wasn't particularly useful for those working in the UK who would then potentially not be able to sit their next LPC unless their company had EASA licensed examiners and equipment, and would then not be able to fly until they applied for a received their UK licence (after 1/4/21 and with no timescales given).
Added to that is the fact that non-UK EASA licence holders who gained their licences before 1/1/21, doing identical tests and training, can fly in the UK until the end of 2022 using their EASA licences, and gain a UK licence with no additional training or testing. And then the icing on the cake of certain operators demanding EASA licences for UK based roles.
Life is not fair I guess, and while the politicians responsible for this won't be losing any sleep, it has successfully divided us professional aviators who have no real recourse as our regulators are just doing what they are told by the lawmakers.