(Bus Eireann)
The very useful web site of the national bus company. You can find the time of the next bus to anywhere in Ireland.


Iarnrod Eireann - Rail Travel
The website of the provider of Irish rail passenger services.

IMPORTING CARS

You can bring your own car over but will have to re register it in Ireland, although if you are travelling back and forwards you don't need to re register it. Also you will need to prove you have owned your car for more than six months otherwise you will have to pay import duty.

BUYING A CAR

What a pain in the arse this can be, there are plenty of cars about to buy, but trying to find out what you need and how you go about it was a bit of a nightmare. We ended up renting a car for quite some time. As this was costing us 500 sterling a month we decided we could probably buy two for not much more. You can it seems use your UK licence although it can make things easier to exchange your UK licence for an Irish one, we have been told this has to be done within 12 months. An American friend of ours who has also moved here has basically had to start again on an Irish provisional licence. It can be a bit crazy although on a provisional licence you need L plates and you should have somebody to sit with you who has a full licence. however there seems to be a lot of drivers here braking the law. It probably explains however why insurance seems so expensive here. We know a lot of drivers on provisional licences and the only way you could tell is by the way they drive or by knowing them personally.

Driving Licence

Like the UK you have to start with your provisional licence until you earn your Full licence.

Road Tax

To help protect the environment  Ireland operates a Road tax system based on the engine capacity of the car. Despite this there are an awful lot of big cars in Ireland, four wheel drives, Big Mercedes and Jaguars. The table below shows the 2004 road tax fees for private vehicles, there are different rates for commercial and PSV vehicles. Some vehicles are exempt from Road tax but don't get to exited as these include what Brits would consider council type vehicles as well as emergency vehicles, diplomatic and state owned vehicles. Although you can get an exemption under the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations, 1994 (S.I. No. 353 of 1994)

Insurance

This seems to be the worst bit, you obviously have to have it, but getting it doesn't seem that straight forward. You will need your licence, you will also need your 5 years no claims proof from you existing insurance and of course you will have to fill in one of their application forms. The no claims proof will be in the form of a document issued by your current insurance company when you cancel it. You have to cancel your existing insurance when you come to Ireland as you cannot use your no claims on two different policies. Insurance in Ireland seems expensive anyway, if you haven't got your no claims it is even more expensive Just as an example I phoned for a broker for a quote on a Peugeot 206CC 1600 and if I wanted to keep my UK insurance and therefore not have my 5 years no claims only one insurance company on his list would insure me at 2800 Euro a year, with my 5 years no claims it would come out at 1017 Euro. Convictions and previous claims will increase premiums if they insure you at all, strange when you see how some of them drive over here.

NCT

The National Car Test which is basically the equivalent of the MOT in the UK. This was only introduced in 2000 as part of the EU directive. Once a the vehicle is four years old it requires an NCT, this then has to be renewed every two years. The test costs 48 euro and can take up to an hour while they carry out some 57 different checks

In Ireland as well as displaying you Tax disk you also have to display your insurance certificate and your NCT

BREAKDOWN

FIND A CAR