Yellow Plates

mountainyman

The northern driver who breaks the law is a bit of a shibboleth in Dublin, in fairness southerners are worse in the north.
Obviously the solution is integrated ticketing, howevr in the interim what about impounding northern reg cars for breaking the law.
Or the guard could tell them to wait till he gets back and return in an hour.

I also think if a southerner is driving a UK reg car they should have to prove that they live in the UK and if they don't the car should be impounded. This would deter the VRT dodgers who are basically stealing from the rest of us.

seamus

Every foreign registered vehicle should have to register (for a nominal fee) on entry. If the Gardai stop a car that hasn't registered itself, it gets impounded. If the registration papers are more than 2 weeks old, the car gets impounded until road tax (+ arrears) is paid.
For people near the border, they declare their regular crossing, and the road tax is split between the two jurisdictions.

Enforcement is the problem though.

mackerski

The big problem with both of these proposals, of course, is that they fly in the face of EU law.

Dermot

seamus

mackerski wrote:

The big problem with both of these proposals, of course, is that they fly in the face of EU law.

Dermot

Not really, unless people are prevented from crossing. Afaik, the EU gives the right of free movement of people. How they get there is a different story. If that was the case, airports couldn't impose a tax on flights originating in other EU countries. I could be wrong though.

A Dub in Glasgo

I think it is more a case of the government stealing from people with the VRT rather than the other way around.

---

A family on a 3 week touring holiday in Ireland gets the privilege of paying road tax in Ireland. If that family are from another EU country, will they have the facility to get a 3 week refund on their home road tax!

mackerski

To impose that kind of admin overhead on vehicles entering the juristiction (impractical on an open border, in any case) represents an obstacle to free movement. Furthermore, the suggestion that an Irish person driving a foreign-registered vehicle be treated differently to someone of a different nationality is also troublesome. A far more reasonable approach would be a pan-EU vehicle registration database.

Dermot

seamus

mackerski wrote:

To impose that kind of admin overhead on vehicles entering the juristiction (impractical on an open border, in any case) represents an obstacle to free movement. Furthermore, the suggestion that an Irish person driving a foreign-registered vehicle be treated differently to someone of a different nationality is also troublesome. A far more reasonable approach would be a pan-EU vehicle registration database.

Dermot

Well yeah, but dat's on dem pooter tings that our Gardai don't seem to want to use.

Mailman

solution is lower vrt, motor tax and vat on vehicles combined with higher fuel prices.
People are motivated to procure their vehicles outside the country at the moment.

Under the current regime this problem can't be tackled as there are too many foreign registered cars on the roads.

Calina

seamus wrote:

Every foreign registered vehicle should have to register (for a nominal fee) on entry. If the Gardai stop a car that hasn't registered itself, it gets impounded. If the registration papers are more than 2 weeks old, the car gets impounded until road tax (+ arrears) is paid.
For people near the border, they declare their regular crossing, and the road tax is split between the two jurisdictions.

Enforcement is the problem though.

AFAIK, if you are going to be in the country for more than three months you are supposed to register your car in the jurisdiction.

I don't so much care about the fact that there are lots of yellow plates. What I care about is that they can't be touched for traffic infractions.

The French and the Luxembourgers have a nice deal whereby if you, a Luxembourger, are caught speeding in France, they send the speeding fine to your home in Luxembourg and you have to pay it. They're looking to extend this,

It'd be nice if the Northern authorities and the Republic could get their act to gether on it, although not just for speeding.

Calina

mackerski wrote:

The big problem with both of these proposals, of course, is that they fly in the face of EU law.

Dermot

Not sure I agree with you. After all, if you, a human being, move to France, or Germany, or Belgium, you have to register yourself with the local authorities. I haven't had to do it myself, but I think it's required in Belgium for cars. They can't prevent you from coming in, but they can make you adhere to local regulations.

Calina

Mailman wrote:

solution is lower vrt, motor tax and vat on vehicles combined with higher fuel prices.
People are motivated to procure their vehicles outside the country at the moment.

Under the current regime this problem can't be tackled as there are too many foreign registered cars on the roads.

You can, if you want, import your car yourself, and even paying local VRT taxes, you may well do better than if you went to your local dealer. But that doesn't change the fact that if you live here, you must register your car. I think insurance companies can get iffy about covering accident damages if cars not registered in the jurisdiction are being driven by people whose permanent address is within the jurisdiction.

The number of foreign registered cars is not a barrier to sorting this out. It's a question of having the will to do it. I think the agency most involved in checking up on foreign registered cars in the jurisdiction, however, is the Customs & Excise.

antoinolachtnai

You don't have to register to just visit.

You used to have to register in and out of the North with vehicles (long time ago). It was a right administrative mess.

cyclopath2001

Calina wrote:

I don't so much care about the fact that there are lots of yellow plates. What I care about is that they can't be touched for traffic infractions.

Someone I knew was caught speeding in the North about 20 years ago. Because he was a non-resident, they didn't give him an on-the-spot fine, they took him to the police station, over-nighted him & brought him before a magistrate the next day. He & his car was held until £300 sterling was produced (no credit cards, no cheques...). This was at a time when that was a fair bit of money.

Kobayashi

Rightly or wrongly, the situation is created by cars being cheaper to buy in the UK. You may or may not know that anyone moving here has to have owned their car for more than 6 months in UK in order to be exempt from paying VRT. Interesting to come over here and find everyone talking about the "rip off Republic" too.

MrPudding

I have heard of a number of people from the north getting the same treatment down here.

MrP

Benster

I know that in the North, if the offence was bad enough, a southern-reg car can be impounded/driver arrested. I'd assume the same is the case in the South, but with drivers from both sides committing mostly speeding offences, the low level of enforcement allows most to go unpunished.

Kobayashi - quite right, 6 months of UK ownership means exemption from VRT. Mostly only useful for Brits/Northerners moving South. If you wanted to try to get around VRT this way in the South, you'd have to have a legitimate address up North/in Britain for that duration before moving home - a bit of a roundabout way of doing it I think...

Totally agree - the problem is with the extortionate amount of VRT in this country.