Moving back to Ireland with my car from outside of the EU

Sell it and buy one here, would be my advice. There are plenty of Suzuki Swifts around for reasonable money in Ireland so I imagine you will easily find a replacement. Like Henry F asks: is it worth the trouble? Organising the shipping, paying the expensive fees and having all that hassle, headache and fear of the unknown could be quite stressful… The car isn't something exotic or so out of the ordinary that it is irreplaceable.

If you are so in love with the car and still intent on bringing it to Ireland, there are companies here who can organise and take care of the import documentation and fees at the port of entry for you. There are several that might fit the bill here, the first one that comes to mind is JDM Auction Watch but there are others (Google them). Might be worth contacting one of these to see if they could take care of the leg work for you instead. I am sure you have other things to be worrying about when moving across the world.

Generally speaking you won't get insurance on the Japanese plate. You get the car transported from Dublin Port to the VRT centre and about 3 days after the VRT appointment you can book a NCT and get insurance.

Might not be worth the hassle tho. They cost around €12,000 here

The difference from the work of these companies is that the OP is transferring residence, and so will not have to pay VRT etc. It might be what they are used to.

Sure all the automatic Swifts here are Japanese imports anyway so won't make much of a difference.

I imagine it's extremely easy to export a car from Japan considering how big an industry it is

Really looking for info on getting the car to the NCT center, the plates, and the insurance.

Make your VRT appointment at either Northpoint 2/Ballymount/Greenhills NCT centre, or whichever suits and get the car delivered there.

NCT offer a number plate service, or any motor factor can do them for you or get them online.

When you have your reg number you can then get insurance the normal way.

Maybe I've gotten lucky but anytime I've done it I've been able to sort insurance immediately with the new reg, I'd always have it lined up in advance with make model etc. Only stuff I have to wait for the database to update on is tax and NCT.

And if you know for sure when the car is arriving nothing stopping anyone making a VRT appointment in advanced for a suitable date. Just need to be 100% sure it'll be here so you don't get stung for the VRT appointment cancellation fee if you don't cancel within 5 working days.

A non-Irish registered car cannot be taxed or NCT’d. Upon importation, they have 30 days to effect the VRT process. For that period, at least, no one could be prosecuted for not have tax or an NCT. As regards insurance, provided it is disclosed to the insurer (which it would have to be in order to obtain insurance on the VIN or foreign licence plate), the insurer could not void the insurance. It would be a key feature of the policy.

Not a great guard .was it insured ?

Any prosecution would fail; it’s simply not possible to tax it until the day after it is registered. Three days are given for the display of registration plates but there are no express provisions providing leeway for tax thereafter. You can drive it home but probably not after that day until you have taxed it. A prosecution for no NCT would also likely fail until a reasonable time had elapsed to arrange the test.

Edit: this is called the doctrine of impossibility/imprcaticability.

What are the import duties from Japan?