driving with a UK provisional license

Driving Ban and Fine I would think.

Failure to have motor insurance or driving without insurance in Ireland is generally punishable by:

• A fine of up to €5,000
• 5 penalty points; and
• At the discretion of the court, a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months.

The court may decide that you be disqualified from driving instead of incurring penalty points. In that case, you will be disqualified for 2 years or more for a first offence and 4 years or more in the case of a second offence committed within 3 years of the first.

If you don’t have a current licence, and your driving licence expired less than 12 months before the offence took place, you could be fined up to €1000. If it was more than 12 months since your licence was valid (or if you never had a valid licence), you could be fined up to €2000.

If you drive while disqualified from driving, or you are required to produce a certificate of competency or certificate of fitness before getting a driving licence but you fail to do so, you could be fined up to €6000, or be imprisoned for up to 6 months, or both.

What yer getting is screwed, And rightly so. If it's your first offence I wouldn't be packing your toothbrush but I hope you can afford the 6k fine you'll prob be getting.

I wouldn't even consider going to court without a solicitor experienced in the subject.

Also be prepared for the MIBI to seek to recover from you any costs they bear in paying for the other drivers repairs/costs.

Very true. What was the OP thinking? No excuse tbh

Driving without insurance is dealt with in court, it will trump not having a licence...

Insurance

You must have motor insurance to drive a car in your own name or as a named driver on someone else's policy. If a Garda asks for your insurance certificate, you must provide it within 7 days. Offences for driving without insurance are prosecuted in court. Failure to display an insurance disk carries a fixed charge of €60 (rising to €90 after 28 days).

If you drive while uninsured, you could be fined up to €5000 and get 5 penalty points. You could also go to prison for up to 6 months. The judge may decide to disqualify you from driving instead of giving you penalty points. You can read more in our document on ‘Motor insurance’.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/motoring_1/driving_offences/driving_offences.html#l011a8

If you can prove you had a difficult disadvantaged upbringing you'll be grand.

You did chose to drive without insurance, you had the choice to not drive.

Its an absolutely awful argument. No solicitor would let you try it.

No, no, no...

I propose we let the OP run with this interesting line of thinking and see how it plays out.

As long as when the summons is received they give us a heads up on the Court and date? Because I really, really want to be in the gallery for that!

your understanding is incorrect. The legislation states that you must have an approved policy of insurance (it does also mention an approved guarantee but that doesn't apply to you). The word "must" in legislation makes it very clear that being unable to obtain insurance because you do not have a licence is not an excuse.

they had a UK provisional licence. about as much use here as a chocolate teapot but a real thing none the less.

OP's best chance is to confirm to the court that in the Queen's English that "Provisional" is synonymous with "Professional" and the provincial oiks in An Garda are mistaken!

Totally outflank the law with linguistic wizardry!

were UK provisional licences ever recognised here?

yeah I didn't think so. Nothing to do with Brexit at all.

and that has always been the case. nothing to do with brexit.

How someone could even think about setting foot in an uninsured car that they've gone to the trouble of re-registering, NCT'd, and to top it all off driving without a licence - is beyond me.

I'm on a learners permit myself for the last month or so and wouldn't even think of crossing into the North, let alone bringing my car to another country. As a learner driver you should be even more aware of this since you'd have recently had to learn it anyway, unless you've been on that provisional for a long time.

OP there's no argument to be had, the inability to obtain insurance does not give entitlement to drive. Maybe if you were living in a country where it insurance wasn't common then sure a judge might be a little sympathetic to that but the UK has the same requirements as Ireland in that regard. No sympathy, no excuse.