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Plate Atlas
Driving abroad

Driving in Ireland

The licence plates you will see on the road in Ireland, how to read them, and what a car from abroad needs.

IRELAND50100120

Speed limits

Default limits for cars, unless signs say otherwise, as on the signs at border crossings.

In towns
50 km/h
Outside towns
100 km/h
Motorways
120 km/h

80 km/h on regional and local roads.

Before you drive

Vignette and tolls
There is no vignette; some motorways have toll plazas. The M50 around Dublin has no barriers since 2008; pay online at eflow.ie or in shops by 8 pm the day after the journey, or a penalty charge is added.

Rules and prices change. Check the official site before you travel.

IRL

Country code

Cars registered here show the country code IRL. Plates carry it on the blue EU band, which counts as the country sign: no separate oval sticker is needed in the European Economic Area, and the plate is also valid in other countries of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. A car from abroad shows its own country code at the rear in the same way.

Reading the plates

Plates carry an area code that shows where the car was registered: 31 codes across 26 counties. For example:

241-CW-12345
Area codes on the mapAll area codes

Plates you will see

  • 241-D-12345

    Standard · Since 2013

Special plates

Older plates still on the road

  • 12-D-12345

    Standard · 1987–2012

Plate formats and history of Ireland

Sources