1. if you want to get a north sea job then these days getting an IR is a must
2. but more experience is not always good, sometimes they want lower time + IR because your salary will be lower and hence the costbase for the employer will be lower.
3. any logical analysis of the risk/return ratio will automatically mean that you should not proceed, there are a lot of pilots out there with IR's some who are employed onshore and some not, who are not getting in.
4. do it if you want to give yourself a chance, but be preapared for plan B if it doesnt work.
5.its all about timing, there is mostly a famine and sometimes a flood of P2 jobs, 3 floods i can remember about 1998, 2001, 2007 ish, so on that basis, another should be along soon (but maybe not)