Vehicle registration plates of the Republic of Ireland

The current specification for number plates is the format 000-AA-0000. Those issued from 1989 to 2013 had the format 00-AA-0000.

The components are:

• YY or YYH – a numeric year or half-year identifier based on date of the vehicle's first registration.
  • The former YY format used the last two digits of the year the car was registered.
  • The YYH format used since 2013 appends a 1 or 2 as a third digit depending on which half of the year the car was registered: 1 for January–June and 2 for July–December.^[1]
• CC – a one- or two-letter identifier of the area of the licensing authority, which registers vehicles on behalf of one or more local authorities. For example:
  • D is the identifier for County Dublin (four local authorities: Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council, Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council)
  • SO is the identifier for County Sligo (one local authority: Sligo County Council)
• SSSSSS – a one- to six-digit sequence number, starting with the first vehicle registered in the licensing authority area that year or half-year. For example, the 12,345th vehicle registered in Dublin in 1989 would display 89-D-12345; the 56,789th registered in Dublin in the first half of 2023 would display 231-D-56789.

Since 1991, the design of the standard Irish number plate has been based on European standard guidelines, with a blue vertical band to the left of the plate containing the twelve stars of the Flag of Europe, below which is the country identifier for Ireland: IRL. The rest of the plate has a white background with black characters. There are usually two hyphens; between the year and county code, and between the county code and sequence number. Also required is the full Irish language name of the county/city which must be positioned above the identifier.^[2] From July 2025, new and existing vehicles emitting zero emissions at the tailpipe can optionally be registered with a green vertical band; rectangular plates have the green band printed to the right of the plate, while square plates feature the green band below the blue country identifier band.^[3][4]

The current regulations are set out in the Vehicle Registration and Taxation (Amendment) Regulations, 1999,^[2] as amended by the Vehicle Registration and Taxation (Amendment) Regulations 2012 and Vehicle Registration and Taxation (Amendment) Regulations 2025.^[5][3] These prescribe the format, dimensions and technical specifications of registration plates to be displayed on vehicles. They substitute the First Schedule of the Vehicle Registration and Taxation Regulations, 1992^[6] to allow additional characters to be displayed on the registration plate and to ensure that these are displayed in the correct position and proportion. The changes were necessary to cater for increases in the number of car registrations.

A standard uniform character font is not required. The rules simply require legible black sans serif characters, no more than 70mm high and 36mm wide with a stroke width of 10mm, on a white reflective background. The result is that a large variety of perfectly legal font styles may be seen, on either pressed aluminium or acrylic plates, both of which are allowed.^[2] Commonly used fonts include a condensed version of Mandatory, Arial and FE-Schrift. Despite the rather relaxed lack of a specified font, the hyphen between the lettering must lie between the minimum dimensions of 13mm x 10mm or the maximum dimension of 22mm x 10mm.

If the plate's format does not meet the requirements, the vehicle will fail the mandatory periodic National Car Test (NCT),^[7] although some owners of custom plates evade this by switching to conformant plates temporarily for the NCT.^[8] As automatic number-plate recognition has become prevalent on toll roads and for traffic enforcement cameras, the use of hard-to-read nonstandard plates has become a concern.^[9] It is a criminal offence not to display plates in the specified format, liable to a fine after summary conviction of up to €5,000.^[10][11] In 2008, the Revenue Commissioners issued 69 formal warnings and launched no criminal prosecutions.^[11] The Road Traffic Act 2016 authorised the Garda Síochána (police) to issue a fixed-charge penalty instead of prosecution.^[12] The power was extended to the Revenue Commissioners in 2023.^[9][13] However, the statutory instrument setting the applicable penalty (of €60) was not made until 2024,^[14] and the Garda mobile app connecting to its PULSE IT system was not updated until October 2025.^[9][13]

Sequence numbers may be reserved for new vehicle registrations only on completion of form VRT15A and payment of €1,000. Reserved vehicle registrations have some limitations: ^[15]

• This reservation was withdrawn from used imported vehicles on first Irish registration in 2015. ^{[citation needed]}
• Applications must be made on or after 1 November in the year before it is intended to first register the vehicle.
• The registration must be in the normal registration number format, meaning it must match the year, half year, county the vehicle will be registered in, and a sequence of digits. For example, 271-D-123456 is valid to be reserved for a Dublin resident intending to register a vehicle between January and July in 2027.
• The sequence number 1 of each year/half year is not available for reservation for vehicles registered in Cork, Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford. These are traditionally reserved for the respective mayor/lord mayor of these cities. ^[16]

Notable examples of reserved registrations:

• In 2019, Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, was entitled to receive the registration plate 191-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 or 03-C-5 for a 2003 Citroen C5 and 08-D-89 for an Aston Martin DB9.
• Dublin radio station FM104 tend to register their vehicles with reserved number sequences ending with "104", e.g. 05-D-38104.

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 sovereign state 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.

Imported used cars are registered based on the year of first registration in their country of original registration rather than the year of import. Early in this system, each county used to have a continuous sequence of numbers for vehicles so if a new car registered on 31 December 2010 was 10 D 37456, then the next registered car from 2010 registered in 2011 would be 10 D 37457. This changed in late 2011 when each county (prior to 2010) had their next available sequence number increased. For example, 10-D-120006 would be the 6th import in Dublin of a car from 2010, as Dublin's re-registration band starts at 120000. Meath's starts at 15000.

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

Trade plates have plates with white letters on a dark green background, but with the reverse style of the normal plates: the trader's number for that year is displayed first, the county second, and the applicable year last.

Starting from 1st July 2025, electrically powered vehicles may have a (Pantone 7481 c) green stripe on the right side in standard single-line plates; in the two-lines type the green band is placed on the lower half of the blue euroband on the left.

Diplomatic plates are very similar to civilian format, except for the small "CD" between the index mark code and serial number. Code CD is not always shown in Diplomatic plates.^[17]

The city codes are a single letter, the initial letter of its English-language name. Most county codes use the first and last letters of the county's name. For example, Sligo is SO. The exceptions to this are:

• Where the county shares its registration function with the city of the same name, in which case both use the single-letter code. An example of this is County Cork, which shares the same name with Cork City, and takes the code "C".
• Where a conflict exists, i.e. Kerry is KY, so Kilkenny is KK; and County Waterford was (until 2014) WD, (subsequently changed to "W"), so Wexford is WX.
• The "T" code which is used in County Tipperary. This is because the county was, until 2014, divided into Tipperary North Riding (TN) and Tipperary South Riding (TS).

The codes are similar to the ISO 3166-2 codes for Irish counties. An exception is that the ISO code for Cork is IE-CO, since IE-C is used for the province of Connacht, and the ISO code for Tipperary is IE-TA (from the Irish name Tiobraid Árann).^[18]

Ireland was the first country to introduce the now common blue European Union strip (comprising the European flag symbol and the country code of the member state) on the left-hand side of the number plate in 1991, following the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) (Amendment) Regulations statute of 1990 (S.I. No. 287/1990).^[20] A similar band was adopted by Portugal in 1992 and by Germany in 1994^[21] and was standardised across the EU on 11 November 1998 by Council Regulation (EC) No 2411/98.^[22]

The system originally used in Ireland was part of the British system of identifiers.^[23]

A two-letter code containing the letter I was allocated to each administrative county in alphabetical order (the full list appears below), with the initial registration format being the code followed by a sequence number from 1 to 9999, as in Great Britain. The codes allocated ran from IA to IZ, then from AI to WI, with the letters G, S, and V skipped as these were intended for Scotland.^[24] The full list was as follows:

In 1921, shortly before the creation of the Irish Free State, Belfast and Dublin City completed their original marks and thus took the next available codes, XI and YI respectively, with Dublin City then taking ZI in 1927. After this, most other codes with Z as the first letter (again skipping those containing G, S and V) were allocated in alphabetical order, starting with single-letter Z – the only one-letter code used in Ireland – for County Dublin. (This does not include the ZZ code for temporary imports, introduced in 1925.)

In February 1952, a joint motor taxation authority was set up for Dublin City and county, and their codes were merged. Two years later, with all possible codes (at the time) allocated, a new format was introduced with a serial letter added before the code, and the sequence number running only to 999 (thus limiting the number of characters on a number plate to six). The Dublin joint authority was the first to adopt this format when it issued ARI 1 in May 1954, and each county followed suit once all its two-letter combinations had been issued. In the case of counties with more than one code, all the three-letter marks for the first allocated code would be issued, then all such marks for the second code, and so on (see the lists of series per county below).

G, S and V were not used as serial letters at first, while Z was not used before a code starting with that letter, so as to prevent any clashing with ZZ temporary registrations. Several other three-letter marks were not issued either through oversight or because they were deemed offensive, and the single-letter Z code was left out of this format as a serial letter would have created a duplicate of an existing two-letter code, particularly one used in Northern Ireland.

Initially, all number plates had been black with white or silver characters, but in 1969 the option of black-on-white at the front and black-on-red at the rear was introduced.

In February 1970, the Dublin joint authority exhausted all its three-letter combinations and thus began issuing "reversed" registrations, starting with the original two-letter codes (plus single-letter Z) in order of allocation. These were followed from July 1974 onwards by the three-letter marks (1 ARI etc.), issued in the same manner as for the forward versions. Again, other counties followed this example over time. Also in 1974, Cork followed Dublin's example of setting up a joint motor taxation authority for city and county, though their codes were not merged until August 1985.

In 1982, with Dublin and several other counties having exhausted all possible combinations of their original codes, it was decided to allocate the skipped codes containing G, S and V to these counties. In the cases of these codes, the forward three-letter combinations were issued first in the same manner as before, followed by the forward two-letter combinations.

Under this system, Irish vehicle registration marks could be transferred to Britain for re-registration on other vehicles, even after Irish independence, and even though they could not be re-used within Ireland. The letter I in many combinations made these attractive for collectors, and indeed the Kilkenny issue VIP 1 fetched a record price at auction. Since the introduction of the current system in 1987, such exports have been impossible, even for old-format registrations, although those already exported may still be re-transferred.

In the 1980s, it became apparent that all possible combinations under the numbering system then in force would soon become exhausted. In Northern Ireland, this problem was rectified by the addition of additional digits.^[25] In the Republic of Ireland, it was decided to introduce an entirely new system with the format of double digits indicating the year of first registration, followed by one or two letters indicating the county of first registration, followed by a number, assigned to vehicles registered in a particular county in order (for example, 87-RN-9999 indicates that the vehicle was the 9999th to be registered in Roscommon in 1987).^[26] The new system was introduced on 1 January 1987.

The 1987 system allocated single-letter codes to the county boroughs (including those shared with counties) and two-letter codes to the other counties. Normally these are the initial and final letter of the English-language name of the county (except where duplicates would result). The full list was as follows:^[27]

Until 1991, all plates under this system consisted solely of black characters on white, on both front and rear. However, in that year, the blue EU identifier and the official Irish language name of the county were added, the latter as a result of the controversy arising from using English as the basis, described by Conradh na Gaeilge, an organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide, as "a fiasco".^[28]

Vehicles first registered outside the state before 1987 are allowed to be re-registered using only the current system, with a year number preceding 87 – for instance, a vehicle from 1964 re-registered in Meath would have 64-MH at the start of its registration.

In 2013, the year was changed to a 3-digit year with the third digit being 1 for January to June and 2 for July to December, for example, 131 for January–June 2013 and 132 for July–December 2013.^[1] The decision to change the year was based partly on superstition about an unlucky '13' registration, but also to boost sales in the second half of the year.^[29]

The first codes were allocated when all of Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom. The codes were based on the alphabetical order of counties and county boroughs (cities) as they were named at the time. King's County and Queen's County were renamed Offaly and Laois respectively following the independence of most of Ireland as the Irish Free State. Counties and county boroughs in italics are in Northern Ireland.

Codes with the letters G, S and V were reserved until the 1980s when they were taken by counties that had exhausted all the combinations for their original codes.

Series per county 1961–1994

Carlow CC: IC

IC 1 to IC 9999^[a] (Dec 1961 – Apr 1964).

AIC 1 to YIC 994 (Apr 1964 – Dec 1993).

Cavan CC: ID

ID 1 to ID 9999 (Jan 1961 – Jul 1968).

AID 1 to ZID 999 (Jul 1968 – Dec 1976).

1 ID to 9999 ID (Dec 1976 – Feb 1981).

1 AID to 906 IID (Feb 1981 – Dec 1993).

Clare CC IE

IE 1 to IE 9999^[b] (Jan 1961 – Mar 1969).

AIE 1 to ZIE 999 (Mar 1969 – Nov 1974).

1 IE to 9999 IE (Nov 1974 – Sep 1978).

1 AIE to 107 XIE (Sep 1978 – Dec 1993).

1. [a]

   A duplicate series of IC for cars and motorcycles existed prior to 1921.
2. [b]

   A duplicate series of IE for cars and motorcycles existed prior to 1921.

Cork CC: (in original issuing sequence) IF ZB ZK ZT

IF 1 to IF 9999 (Dec 1962 – Apr 1985);

ZB 1 to ZB 9999 (Apr 1985 – Apr 1989);

ZK 1 to ZK 9999 (Apr 1989 – May 1990);

ZT 1 to ZT 9999 (May 1990 – Dec 1993).

Cork CC: (in original issuing sequence) AIF ZIF

AIF 1 to ZIF 999 (Dec 1993 – Apr 1994). In June 1974 Cork County Council and Cork County Borough Council set up a joint motor taxation authority, administered by the County Council. However, separate registers continued in use for the County and the County Borough until the expiry of reverse ZPI in August 1985. See below for the sequences issued covering both areas. Marks in italics are after the merger.

Cork City: (in original issuing sequence) PI ZF

PI 1 to PI 9999 (Dec 1962 – Aug 1968);

ZF 1 to ZF 9999 (Aug 1968 – Dec 1972).

API 1 to ZPI 999 (Dec 1972 – Feb 1980);

AZF 1 to YZF 999 (Feb 1980 – Mar 1986).

1 PI to 9999 PI (Mar 1986 – Jun 1988);

1 ZF to 9999 ZF (Jun 1988 – Feb 1990).

1 API to 999 ZPI (Feb 1990 – Aug 1992).

In June 1974 Cork County Council and Cork County Borough Council set up a joint motor taxation authority, administered by the County Council. However, separate registers continued in use for the County and the County Borough until the expiry of reverse ZPI in August 1985. See below for the sequences issued covering both areas.

Cork County and County Borough Joint Office: (in issuing sequence) reverse 3-letter sequences of (R)ZK ZF

1 RZK to 999 YZK (Aug 1992 – May 1993);

1 AZF to 542 FZF (May – Dec 1993).

Donegal CC: (in original issuing sequence) IH ZP

IH 1 to IH 9999³ (Dec 1962 – Jan 1972);

ZP 1 to ZP 9999 (Jan 1972 – Nov 1973).

AIH 1 to ZIH 999 (Nov 1973 – Apr 1976);

AZP 1 to ZZP 407⁴ (Apr 1976 – Feb 1982). 1 IH to 9999 IH (Feb 1982 – Apr 1985);

1 ZP to 9999 ZP (Apr 1985 – Dec 1993).

³ A duplicate series of IH for cars and motorcycles existed prior to 1967.

⁴ ZZP was not authorised by SR&O (Statutory Rules & Orders) and was issued in error – no retrospective SR&O was issued to legitimise its issue. When the error was discovered ZZP was terminated at 407; in consequence the next series (reverse IH) commenced at 408.

Dublin CC (until 1952): (in original issuing sequence) IK Z ZE

IK 1 to IK 9999⁵ (Dec 1962 – Mar 1967);

Z 1 to Z 9999 (Mar 1967 – Sep 1968);

ZE 1 to ZE 9999 (Sep 1968 – Feb 1993).

⁵ A duplicate series of IK for cars and motorcycles existed prior to 1967.

In February 1952 Dublin County Council and Dublin County Borough Council set up a joint motor taxation authority. The joint office was administered by Dublin County Borough Council. See below for subsequent issues.

Dublin City (until 1952): (in original issuing sequence) RI YI ZI ZA ZC ZD ZH ZJ ZL

RI 1 to RI 9999⁶ (Dec 1962 – Apr 1963);

YI 1 to YI 9999 (Apr 1963 – Mar 1965);

ZI 1 to ZI 9999 (Mar 1965 – May 1967);

ZA 1 to ZA 9999 (May 1967 – Mar 1971);

ZC 1 to ZC 9999 (Mar 1971 – Jan 1980);

ZD 1 to ZD 9999 (Jan 1980 – Jan 1987);

ZH 1 to ZH 9999 (Jan 1987 – Jan 1989);

ZJ 1 to ZJ 9999 (Jan 1989 – Jul 1990);

ZL 1 to ZL 9999 (Jul 1990 – Feb 1994).

⁶ A duplicate series up to RI 3000 for cars and motorcycles existed prior to 1967.

In February 1994 Dublin County Council and Dublin County Borough Council set up a joint motor taxation authority. The joint office was administered by Dublin County Borough Council. See below for subsequent issues.

Dublin County and County Borough Joint Office (from February 1994): (in original issuing sequence) forward 2-letter sequences of ZO ZU; then forward 3-letter combinations of RI IK YI ZA ZC ZD ZE ZH ZI ZJ ZL ZO ZU; then reverse 2-letter sequences of RI IK YI Z ZA ZC ZD ZE ZH ZI ZJ ZL ZO ZU; then reverse 3-letter combinations of RI IK YI ZA ZC ZD ZE ZH ZI ZJ ZL ZO ZU; then forward 3-letter combinations of SI ZG ZS ZV; then forward 2-letter sequences of SI ZG ZS ZV.

AZC 1 to YZC 999 (Jan 1961 – Apr 1962);

AZD 1 to YZD 999 (Apr 1962 – May 1963);

AZE 1 to YZE 999 (May 1963 – Jun 1964);

AZH 1 to YZH 999 (Jun 1964 – May 1965);

AZI 1 to YZI 999 (May 1965 – Jun 1966);

AZJ 1 to YZJ 999 (Jun 1966 – Jun 1967);

AZL 1 to YZL 999 (Jun 1967 – May 1968);

AZO 1 to YZO 999 (May 1968 – Mar 1969);

AZU 1 to YZU 999 (Mar 1969 – Feb 1970).

1 RI to 9999 RI (Feb – May 1970);

1 IK to 9999 IK (May – Sep 1970);

1 YI to 9999 YI (Sep 1970 – Feb 1971);

1 Z to 9999 Z (Feb – Jun 1971);

1 ZA to 9999 ZA (Jun – Oct 1971);

1 ZC to 9999 ZC (Oct 1971 – Mar 1972);

1 ZD to 9999 ZD (Mar – Jun 1972);

1 ZE to 9999 ZE (Jun – Oct 1972);

1 ZH to 9999 ZH (Oct 1972 – Feb 1973);

1 ZI to 9999 ZI (Feb – May 1973);

1 ZJ to 9999 ZJ (May – Aug 1973);

1 ZL to 9999 ZL (Aug – Dec 1973);

1 ZO to 9999 ZO (Dec 1973 – Apr 1974);

1 ZU to 9999 ZU (Apr – Jul 1974).

1 ARI to 999 YRI⁷ (Jul 1974 – May 1975);

1 AIK to 999 ZIK⁸ (May 1975 – Mar 1976);

1 AYI to 999 YYI⁹ (Mar 1976 – Jan 1977);

1 AZA to 999 YZA (Jan – Aug 1977);

1 AZC to 999 YZC (Aug 1977 – Mar 1978);

1 AZD to 999 YZD (Mar – Sep 1978);

1 AZE to 999 YZE (Sep 1978 – Apr 1979);

1 AZH to 999 YZH (Apr – Oct 1979);

1 AZI to 999 YZI (Oct 1979 – Apr 1980);

1 AZJ to 999 YZJ (Apr 1980 – Jan 1981);

1 AZL to 999 YZL (Jan – May 1981);

1 AZO to 999 YZO (May 1981 – Jan 1982);

1 AZU to 999 YZU (Jan – Aug 1982).

ASI 1 to ZSI 999 (Aug 1982 – Jun 1983);

AZG 1 to YZG 999 (Jun 1983 – May 1984);

AZS 1 to YZS 999 (May 1984 – Mar 1987);

AZV 1 to YZV 999 (Mar 1987 – Jan 1993).

SI 1 to SI 9999 (Jan – Apr 1993);

ZG 1 to ZG 9999 (Apr – Jul 1993);

ZS 1 to ZS 8709 (Jul 1993 – Dec 1994);

ZV 1¹⁰ and up (1992 – present).

⁷ GRI, IRI, SRI, VRI and ZRI (both original and reverse format) were not issued.

⁸ GIK, SIK and VIK (both original and reverse format) were not issued.

⁹ ZIK (both original and reverse format) were not issued.

¹⁰ Forward 2-letter sequences of ZV were issued as an alternative to the current scheme for vehicles older than 30-years for the first time in Ireland, and also issued countrywide.

International circulations (from April 1925): ZZ

ZZ 1 to ZZ 9999 (Apr 1925 – Mar 1983);

1 ZZ to 9999 ZZ (Mar 1983 – Mar 1993);

ZZ 10000¹¹ and up (circa Mar 1993 – present).

¹¹ Some reserved number blocks issued out of sequence within main block.

Galway CC: (in original issuing sequence) IM ZM

IM 1 to IM 9999 (Jan 1962 – Oct 1962);

ZM 1 to ZM 9999 (Oct 1962 – Nov 1969).

AIM 1 to ZIM 999 (Nov 1969 – May 1976);

AZM 1 to YZM 999 (May – Aug 1976).

1 AM to 9999 ZM (Aug 1976 – Apr 1978);

1 ASM to 9999 YSM (Apr 1978 – Oct 1979).

1 AIM to 999 ZIM (Oct 1979 – Feb 1983);

1 AZM to 999 XZM (Feb 1983 – Dec 1993).

Galway city became a separate local authority area from Galway county on 4 April 1995,^[30] but the two councils remained a single licensing authority.

Kerry CC: (in original issuing sequence) IN ZX

IN 1 to IN 9999 (Dec 1962 – Jan 1964);

ZX 1 to ZX 9999 (Jan 1964 – Jan 1971).

AIN 1 to ZIN 999 (Jan 1971 – Jan 1973);

AZX 1 to YZX 999 (Jan 1973 – Jun 1979).

1 IN to 9999 IN (Jun 1979 – Jan 1982);

1 ZX to 9999 ZX (Jan 1982 – Jan 1994).

1 AIN to 375 CIN (Jan – Dec 1994).

Kildare CC: (in original issuing sequence) IO ZW

IO 1 to IO 9999 (Dec 1962 – Jun 1963);

ZW 1 to ZW 9999 (Jun 1963 – Apr 1964).

AIO 1 to ZIO 999¹² (Apr 1964 – Mar 1976);

AZW 1 to YZW 999 (Mar 1976 – May 1983).

1 ZW to 9999 ZW (May 1983 – Dec 1993).

¹² IIO and OIO were not issued.

Kilkenny CC: IP

IP 1 to IP 9999 (Jan 1961 – Feb 1965);

AIP 1 to ZIP 999¹³ (Feb 1965 – Jul 1974).

1 IP to 9999 IP (Jul 1974 – Oct 1978);

1 AIP to 235 UIP¹³ (Oct 1978 – Dec 1993).

¹³ GIP, KIP were not issued in original format, RIP were not issued in reverse format.

VIP1 issued in 1971 was later transferred to the UK licensing system where it is currently issued.

Laoighis CC ( renamed Laoighis (alternative spellings Laois and Leix) in June 1968): CI

CI 1 to CI 9999 (Dec 1962 – Jul 1970).

ACI 1 to ZCI 999 (Jul 1970 – Apr 1981).

1 CI to 7342 CI (Apr 1981 – Dec 1993).

Leitrim CC: IT

IT 1 to IT 9999¹⁴ (Dec 1962 – May 1972).

AIT 1 to KIT 780 (May 1972 – Dec 1993).

¹⁴ A duplicate series of IT for cars and motorcycles existed prior to 1967.

Limerick CC: IU IV

IU 1 to IU 9999 (Dec 1962 – Nov 1964).

AIU 1 to ZIU 999¹⁵ (Nov 1964 – Sep 1971).

1 IU to 9999 IU (Sep 1971 – May 1976).

1 AIU to 999 ZIU¹⁵ (May 1976 – Feb 1992)(note reverse GIU not issued).

AIV 1 to OIV 520¹⁶ (Feb 1992 – Dec 1993).

¹⁵ GIU (both original and reverse format) were not issued; JIU 111 issued early in December 1961 – main JIU sequence commenced April 1962.

¹⁶ IIV and MIV were not issued.

Limerick City: TI

TI 1 to TI 9999 (Jan 1961 – Oct 1969).

ATI 1 to ZTI 999 (Oct 1969 – Mar 1976).

1 TI to 9999 TI (Mar 1976 – Jan 1982).

1 ATI to 929 FTI (Jan 1982 – Dec 1993).

Longford CC: IX

IX 1 to IX 9999 (Dec 1962 – Feb 1970).

AIX 1 to PIX 710 (Feb 1970 – Dec 1993).

Louth CC: (in original issuing sequence) IY ZY

IY 1 to IY 9999 (Dec 1962 – Oct 1964);

ZY 1 to ZY 9999 (Oct 1964 – Jan 1974).

AIY 1 to ZIY 999 (Jan 1974 – Oct 1977);

AZY 1 to YZY 999 (Oct 1977 – Sep 1991).

101 ZY to 2507 ZY (Sep 1991 – Dec 1993).

Mayo CC: IZ IS

IZ 1 to IZ 9999 (Jan 1961 – Oct 1964).

AIZ 1 to ZIZ 999¹⁷ (Oct 1964 – May 1971).

1 IZ to 9999 IZ (May 1971 – Feb 1976).

1 AIZ to 999 ZIZ¹⁷ (Feb 1976 – Apr 1983).

AIS 1 to ZIS999 (Apr 1983 – Dec 1993).

¹⁷ GIZ (both original and reversed format) were not issued.

Meath CC: (in original issuing sequence) AI ZN

AI 1 to AI 9999 (Dec 1962 – Sep 1971);

ZN 1 to ZN 9999 (Sep 1971 – Feb 1972).

AAI 1 to ZAI 999 (Feb 1972 – Jun 1976);

AZN 1 to YZN 999 (Jun 1976 – Oct 1991).

1 AI to 9999 AI (Oct 1991 – Dec 1993);

10 ZN to 99 ZN (Dec 1993 – Oct 1994).

Monaghan CC: BI

BI 1 to BI 9999 (Dec 1962 – Mar 1971).

ABI 1 to ZBI 999 (Mar 1971 – Oct 1981).

1 BI to 9999 BI (Oct 1981 – Dec 1993).

Offaly CC (County Council of Kings County, renamed Offaly in June 1922): IR

IR 1 to IR 9999 (Jan 1961 – May 1982).

AIR 1 to ZIR 999 (May 1982 – Mar 1991).

1 IR to 9999 IR (Mar 1991 – Dec 1993).

Roscommon CC: DI

DI 1 to DI 9999¹⁸ (Dec 1962 – Jan 1963).

ADI 1 to ZDI 999 (Jan 1963 – Apr 1980).

1 DI to 9999 DI (Apr 1980 – Feb 1993).

100 ADI to 292 BDI (Feb 1993 – Dec 1994).

¹⁸ A duplicate series of DI for cars and motorcycles existed prior to 1921.

Sligo CC: EI

EI 1 to EI 9999 (Dec 1962 – Nov 1976).

AEI 1 to ZEI 999 (Nov 1976 – Feb 1980).

1 EI to 9999 EI (Feb 1980 – Apr 1993).

1 EI to 999 EI (Apr 1993 – Dec 1994).

Tipperary North Riding CC: FI

FI 1 to FI 9999¹⁹ (Dec 1961 – Jan 1968).

TFI 1 to TFI 999²⁰ (Jan 1968 – May 1977).

1 FI to 9999 FI (May 1977 – Jan 1981).

1 AFI to 999 JFI (Jan 1981 – Dec 1993).

¹⁹ FI 1-50 issued for cars only; then duplicate series for cars and motorcycles from FI 51 up, until 1920.

²⁰ The series with the prefix JFI never issued although the series with the suffix JFI was issued. ZFI was not authorised by SR&O (Statutory Rules & Orders) No.128, issued 18 May 1967 and was issued in error, commencing Dec 1976. SR&O No.128 only authorised the blocks KFI–PFI and RFI–YFI. No retrospective SR&O was issued to legitimise ZFI's issue.

Tipperary South Riding CC: HI GI

HI 1 to HI 9999²¹ (Dec 1962 – Sep 1964).

AHI 1 to ZHI 999 (Sep 1964 – Nov 1968).

1 HI to 9999 HI²¹ (Nov 1968 – May 1974).

1 AHI to 999 ZHI (May 1974 – May 1984).

AGI 1 to ZGI 999 (May 1984 – Dec 1994).

²¹ GHI and IHI (both original and reversed format) were not issued.

Waterford CC: KI

KI 1 to KI 9999 (Jan 1961 – Mar 1961).

AKI 1 to ZKI 999 (Mar 1961 – Jul 1979).

1 KI to 9999 KI (Jul 1979 – Jun 1993).

1 AKI to 586 AKI (Jun 1993 – Dec 1994).

Waterford City: WI

WI 1 to WI 9999 (Jan 1962 – Jan 1964). AWI 1 to WWI 80 (Jan 1964 – Dec 1994).

Westmeath CC: LI

LI 1 to LI 9999 (Dec 1962 – Jun 1969).

ALI 1 to ZLI 999 (Jun 1969 – Aug 1978).

1 LI to 9999 LI (Aug 1978 – Feb 1983).

1 ALI to 869 GLI (Feb 1983 – Dec 1993).

Wexford CC: (in original issuing sequence) MI ZR

MI 1 to MI 9999²² (Jan 1961 – Jun 1962);

ZR 1 to ZR 9999 (Jun 1962 – May 1971).

AMI 1 to YMI 999²³ (May 1971 – Jul 1973);

AZR 1 to YZR 999 (Jul 1973 – Jun 1976).

1 MI to 9999 MI (Jun 1976 – Oct 1983);

1 ZR to 8071 ZR (Oct 1983 – Dec 1994).

²² MI 9922-9999 were issued by the Police in 1967 as a consequence of The Road Vehicles (Defaulting Councils)(Ireland) Order, 1967.

²³ ZMI were not issued.

Wicklow CC: NI

NI 1 to NI 9999 (Jan 1961 – May 1967).

ANI 1 to ZNI 999²⁴ (May 1967 – May 1976).

1 NI to 9999 NI (May 1976 – Mar 1979).

1 ANI to 426 TNI (Mar 1979 – Dec 1994).

²⁴ QNI was issued in Northern Ireland for cars with indeterminate age, kit cars.

On 1 January 1993, a completely new registration plate system was introduced for new vehicles.

Vehicles older than 1993 imported into Ireland from 1993 were not given age-related numbers from the old system but were included in the new system. Their initial year number and county (i.e. A UK reg 1967 Ford Cortina (MHW 7E) would be registered as 67-D-1 (e.g. 67-D (or any county initial) 1) This would state the year of its first registration or manufacture outside the state but since 2011 these numbers have begun at 120000 which is not historical or authentic (e.g. 67-D-120001). A 1986 Opel with right-hand-drive registered in Ireland would have a pre-1993 style registration plate, the same model car with left-hand-drive imported from the rest of Europe or a Vauxhall from England, Scotland or Wales would have new 86 registration plate.^{[citation needed]} Volkswagen Beetle cars that were imported as knock-down kits from Mexico and assembled up to the mid-2000s were registered in Ireland on original Irish reg chassis having pre-1993 number plates. Pre-1993 registration plates are few and far between nowadays and are mostly found at vintage car shows.

• Motor Tax in the Republic of Ireland
• Vehicle registration plates of the United Kingdom
• Vehicle registration plate
• List of international license plate codes
• Vienna Convention on Road Traffic