Free road tax for privately owned vehicles of Gardaí?

Atlantic Dawn

I notice that some privately owned vehicles of members of the Gardai have Tax Exempt stickers on them. Does this mean they get free road tax as a perk of the job or is the disc purchased as normal and just stamped with Tax Exempt for free parking purposes around the stations?

Are you sure they are privately owned vehicles and not unmarked Garda cars ? Do they have insurance discs ?

Atlantic Dawn

RoverJames wrote: »

Are you sure they are privately owned vehicles and not unmarked Garda cars ? Do they have insurance discs ?

I'm 99.99% sure. None had insurance discs. Have spotted Citroens, Renaults and vehicles with flash alloys and some with italic/bold font reg plates that would not be branch spec. Best example was spotted one with a padlock on the steering wheel and no sign of radio or grill lighting why would anyone do this to any car except one they personally owned especially parking it outside the station.

Atlantic Dawn

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

None had insurance discs.

they're not privately owned, them are covert mobiles

Atlantic Dawn

RoverJames wrote: »

they're not privately owned, them are covert mobiles

Well they must have a massive fleet of coverts and also drive them to and from work everyday and also use them for doing the shopping, fully black ops coverts

mickdw

The gardai have all sorts on the road. I believe certain divisions also carry many different reg plates in the boot to confuse.

WildOscar

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

I'm 99.99% sure. None had insurance discs. Have spotted Citroens, Renaults and vehicles with flash alloys and some with italic/bold font reg plates that would not be branch spec. Best example was spotted one with a padlock on the steering wheel and no sign of radio or grill lighting why would anyone do this to any car except one they personally owned especially parking it outside the station.

isn't that illegal

why would anyone do this to any car except one they personally owned especially parking it outside the station

to make people think it was not an unmarked? not much use being unmarkedif everyone knows it like the old light blue one with more ariels than mt leinster

delly

Theres a big difference between unmarked and undercover, with the latter being hard to spot.

corktina

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

I'm 99.99% sure. None had insurance discs. Have spotted Citroens, Renaults and vehicles with flash alloys and some with italic/bold font reg plates that would not be branch spec. Best example was spotted one with a padlock on the steering wheel and no sign of radio or grill lighting why would anyone do this to any car except one they personally owned especially parking it outside the station.

If they didnt have Insurance Discs, then id be pretty certain they ARE Gard cars.

dr.fuzzenstein

What do these discs look like? *gets printer ready*

Turner

Gardai do not get free road tax in their privately owned cars.

If tax exempt is printed on the tax disc and it is outside a Garda Station it is a state owned car.

What they do with and use the car for is their business.

-Corkie-

Its an unmarked car. The guards have plenty of non D reg cars now. Its no harm anyway that they do so they can concentrate on getting rid of scum..

dr.fuzzenstein

Chief--- wrote: »

Gardai do not get free road tax in their privately owned cars.

If tax exempt is printed on the tax disc and it is outside a Garda Station it is a state owned car.

What they do with and use the car for is their business.

For business use though I guess. Or do they get to take those home and use as a family and weekend runaround? In that case they'd have to pay benefit in kind, which is very hefty in this country, nearly not worth having a company car.

challengemaster

WildOscar wrote: »

isn't that illegal

Nothing's illegal when you're a garda! :pac:

furtzy

Their private cars seem to exempt from parking rules as well if the disgraceful parking on Townsend street is anything to go by. Private Gardai cars parked on double yellow lines and footpaths evert day blocking access to private houses. Its a disgrace. Must get a pic to send into the papers

Motor tax, not road tax.

-Corkie-

furtzy wrote: »

Their private cars seem to exempt from parking rules as well if the disgraceful parking on Townsend street is anything to go by. Private Gardai cars parked on double yellow lines and footpaths evert day blocking access to private houses. Its a disgrace. Must get a pic to send into the papers

Theres no such thing as private Garda cars in this country.:rolleyes:

furtzy

-Corkie- wrote: »

Theres no such thing as private Garda cars in this country.:rolleyes:

eh private cars owned by members of the Gardai :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

rusty_racer94

Did you see those small LED lights around the bumpers?

lifer_sean

mickdw wrote: »

The gardai have all sorts on the road. I believe certain divisions also carry many different reg plates in the boot to confuse.

Can confirm they use multiple plates on same car, usually "local" plates with invalid numbers that look kosher. Also cars are "normal" makes, eg 6-7 year old family saloons, greens, reds, etc. Not much point doing a stake-out in a dark blue 07 D old type mondeo with half a dozen aerials.

rusty_racer94

Last week in Dublin,
I heard a loud siren and it was just an 04 Corolla beside me..
Then followed my an Avensis and a Ford Transit White van.

-Corkie-

furtzy wrote: »

eh private cars owned by members of the Gardai :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

WTF are you on about. If they are Garda cars they belong to the Gardai as in the state. Members own private cars do not get free road tax.

PCPhoto

Chief--- wrote: »

Gardai do not get free road tax in their privately owned cars.

If tax exempt is printed on the tax disc and it is outside a Garda Station it is a state owned car.

What they do with and use the car for is their business.

Does this mean that the "private" vehicles outside the bridewell garda station (Dublin) - parked in the "garda vehicles only" or "prison service vehicles only" area should not be parked there ?

so the gardai that have to use their private vehicles to get into work - park them illegally when going out in a squad car ?

PCPhoto

furtzy wrote: »

Their private cars seem to exempt from parking rules as well if the disgraceful parking on Townsend street is anything to go by. Private Gardai cars parked on double yellow lines and footpaths evert day blocking access to private houses. Its a disgrace. Must get a pic to send into the papers

unfortunately - the papers dont have much interest in this at the moment.

and to be fair its not just private vehicles (owned by Gardai) park illegally on double yellows and footpaths ..... its also official garda vehicles ...and general road users, taxi's, motorbikes, private cars, vans ....even cyclists are breaking the rules of the road

- even last week I spotted a driving instructor giving a lesson ...he was directing the student and the student was driving in the bus lane and another driving instructor got his student to pull in and stop on a disabled parking space - I pointed it out to the student and the instructor promptly shouted back at me that they were not parked.....hopefully the student would have learned - if an instructor has a fault pointed out to them and reacts in such an aggressive manner - the instructor quite clearly has a bad grasp of the rules of the road...a disabled parking bay is for a specific road user and not for anyone else to stop in....definately a bad instructor in my book.


I understand your point that its the enforcers of the law which should set an example....unfortunately ... thats not going to happen anytime soon - and I dont believe it is possible to happen - Gardai are trained to drive in a manner which suits their profession - however this sometimes requires illegal manouvers..... unfortunately the culture of turning a blind eye to indescretions that our politicans suffer from has infected society in general.... gardai help themselves and others to "remove" driving offences - I have had the offer given to me by a family friend (a garda) .... who told me to give him a shout if I ever got any speeding tickets or any traffic offences with the gardai (he may have been trying to show off his "power" as a garda - but the fact that the offer was thrown out means it is not uncommon)

furtzy

-Corkie- wrote: »

WTF are you on about. If they are Garda cars they belong to the Gardai as in the state. Members own private cars do not get free road tax.

Good God man try to understand. I am talking about cars belonging to members of the gardai i.e the cars they drive to work in and park illegally out the back of Pearse St garda station whie they are at work.....do you understand now?

I didnt mention anything about free road tax :rolleyes:

dr.fuzzenstein

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

For business use though I guess. Or do they get to take those home and use as a family and weekend runaround? In that case they'd have to pay benefit in kind, which is very hefty in this country, nearly not worth having a company car.

BIK in quite small really if the car clocks up lots of business miles. I had a Mondeo years back and covered 500 ish business miles a week. It worked out at €100 ish a month BIK on my payslip, so I paid the tax on that. Less than the price of a tank of diesel a month for a decent sized car. Most folk who don't do many business miles just opt for a car allowance instead.

D_murph

Dónal wrote: »

Motor tax, not road tax.

They can call it what they like but you have to pay it to drive your car on the public road so therefore it is road tax.

Just because they changed the name of it means nothing. A rose by any other name.... although theres nothing sweet about road tax .

mikemac

D_murph wrote: »

A rose by any other name.... although theres nothing sweet about

Working William Shakespeare and Romeo & Juliet into motors forum, nice one :cool:

Guy:Incognito

D_murph wrote: »

They can call it what they like but you have to pay it to drive your car on the public road so therefore it is road tax.

Just because they changed the name of it means nothing. A rose by any other name.... although theres nothing sweet about road tax .

"road tax" implies its something to do with road maintenance and leads to ignorant rants about "the state of the bloody roads" and " I pay my road tax, the council should be out fixing the potholes beside my house".

Either way, callign it road tax is just wrong. May as well call income tax fairy tax.

D_murph

It was originally brought in as a means of paying for the roads and their upkeep. Similarly as to how the PRSI we pay every week was meant to pay for things like dentist visits etc.. and they decided to take a lot of that back too.

Its always the same though. Bring something in under one name and when everyone gets comfortable with it, change the name and keep the money for themselves but slowly and over time and bit by bit so as not to alarm anyone until they have it all and by then, its too late :rolleyes:.

Guy:Incognito

D_murph wrote: »

It was originally brought in as a means of paying for the roads and their upkeep.

and now its not ringfenced for roads its not called road tax.

D_murph wrote: »

Its always the same though. Bring something in under one name and when everyone gets comfortable with it, change the name and keep the money for themselves but slowly and over time and bit by bit so as not to alarm anyone until they have it all and by then, its too late :rolleyes:.

Whos the "they" in this case?

D_murph

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

and now its not ringfenced for roads its not called road tax.

Exactly the point I was making. It no longer goes to the roads but we keep having to pay it.

Whos the "they" in this case?

I hope that question was in jest but if you need to be told, the bloody thieving shower in government :mad: of course.

Guy:Incognito

D_murph wrote: »

I hope that question was in jest but if you need to be told, the bloody thieving shower in government :mad: of course.

The "bloody thievign shower in government" dotn get the proceeds of motor tax (not the ones in Leinster house anyway(. Motor tax goes to local council coffers.

Gary ITR

I don't think this thread is relevant to Motors, maybe try the ES forum

-Chris-

Drop it please lads - it's called Motor Tax and what it's called and where the money goes has very little to do with this thread.

Back on-topic please.