Peter Barry
Ceist:238 Mr. Barry asked the Minister for the Environment the reason people who wish to retain their car number plates are not allowed to transfer them to a new car.
Written Answers. - Car Number Plates.
The primary purpose of vehicle registration is to enable vehicles to be identified accurately and the vehicle owners traced quickly for law enforcement purposes.
A fundamental feature of the existing vehicle registration system is that a unique identification mark, registration number, is assigned to each vehicle on registration and remains assigned to that vehicle. This allows a complete and accurate history to be maintained in relation to each vehicle as it moves from one owner to another and in relation to each vehicle owned by vehicle-fleet operators. Arrangements which allowed vehicle identification marks to be transferred from one vehicle to another could undermine the effectiveness and integrity of the system and would be incompatible with the requirement that new vehicles be assigned a registration number incorporating the current year-numeral.