Vehicle Registration Plates of Ireland - Current Implementation

Current Implementation

Sequence numbers may be reserved on completion of form VRT15A and payment of €1,000.

• Most registration numbers can be reserved, with the exception of the first number of each year issued in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford as these are reserved for the respective Mayor/Lord Mayor of these cities.

Thus, for example, in the year 2008, Lord Mayor Cllr. Paddy Bourke, the Lord Mayor of Dublin was entitled to receive the registration plate 08-D-1 on his official vehicle.

• Luxury cars with numeric names are often registered with a matching, usually pre-reserved sequence number: for example 06-D-911 on a Porsche 911 or 06-D-750 BMW 750 and 08-D-89 for an Aston Martin DB9.
• Dublin radio station FM 104 tend to register their vehicles with reserved number sequences ending with "104", e.g. 05-D-38104.

Imported used cars are registered based on year of first registration in their country of original registration rather than year of import.

Vehicles registered to the Irish Defence Forces have plates with silver letters on black background. These do not feature the Irish-language county name.

There are only two pre-1987 codes still issued in Ireland.

• "ZZ", administered by the AA Ireland as agents for the Revenue Commissioners, is given to registrants who are based outside the state and who only intend keeping the vehicle within Ireland for a period not exceeding one month. This form of temporary registration is usually used for vehicles that are purchased within Ireland but exported by its new owner to another country directly after purchase. The format of the code is ZZ followed by a five digit number.
• "ZV", which can be selected as an alternative to the current scheme when registering a vehicle older than 30 years for the first time in Ireland.