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Irish number plates as private number plates
Irish number plates are very useful as private number plates on the mainland as Northern Ireland never adopted the practice of identifying the car's age with the registration number.
It must be made clear that only Northern Ireland registrations can be used on a car registered with DVLA Swansea. Southern Ireland is a totally different country better known as Eire and their registration numbers are not legal on a U.K. car.
All Irish numbers have either a Z or a I in them, making them easily identified. The normal issue ones have 7 digits and the letters will signify which part of N.Ireland the car comes from.
Shorter Irish registrations are available from the DVA ( the N.Ireland equivalent of DVLA ) either by buying at auction or online. These can make excellent cover plates as they can have 6 , 5 or less digits in them.
It should be noted that N.Ireland has no retention scheme ao private number plates bought from a vehicle registered with the DVA must be transferred vehicle to vehicle, it cannot be retained.
A further complication is that Irish number plates bought from the government will be supplied on an Irish V750 certificate. This certificate can only be used to assign a registration number to a vehicle registered with the DVA not the DVLA.
Therefore an extra transfer ( and fee ) will be required for this type of purchase.Firstly the registration will be assigned to a vehicle registered in N.Ireland, then a vehicle to vehilce transfer will be submitted to get it onto the car registered withthe DVLA.
If you have any questions regarding any of the above , please contact us by email or telephone.
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