Hi James, i'm in the same boat but have let me IR/ME lapse as i dont see the point in forking out money to renew it when there are no jobs! I keep getting advice of good friends of mine in the industry, to leave it and just renew it when the market picks up! Theres a school in Madrid which charge €700 for the IR/ME which i'm gonna do mine at! In the meantime, i'm doing some flying in a PA-28 from Liverpool, and flying everything IFR.