Michael McAleer answers your queries
From Tom Wade, Blackrock, Dublin:
I wonder if you can help shed some light on what seems to be a strange anomaly. As you may know, the Department of Transport plans to change the speed signs on our roads from miles to kilometres in summer 2004. This change has been long overdue, with the original deadline set for December 1998.
I'm in the process of buying a new car and I would like to have a metric speedometer and odometer, rather than have something that will be obsolete in little over 12 months. In the other countries that made this transition (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada), the regulations for vehicle instrumentation were changed well in advance.
However, I was surprised to find that new cars sold in this country are still being shipped with speedometers and odometers calibrated in miles, despite the fact that most distance signs on national roads are already in kilometres.
Even more surprising is that it doesn't seem possible to order a car with metric displays.
The Minister for Transport has indicated on a number of occassions that he plans to change the speed limits to a metric system next year and it would seem the only undertaking sought by the likes of the Society for the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) has been that they get six months notice prior to introduction. That would suggest summer 2004 at the earliest.
According to SIMI chief executive Cyril McHugh, notice is needed to ensure that all cars ordered will be fitted with metric odometers in time for the changeover.
Very few cars these days have only miles so most drivers will not be greatly inconvenienced by the changeover, simply reverting to the smaller print for their speed checks.
There will be a need for some to convert the dials when they go for their NCT, but according to a spokesperson recently, the readings on speedometers is not a criteria for the test and a car will not fail on these grounds.
As for those wishing to change over, various estimates have been put forward as to the cost, ranging from €15 upwards.
From Duncan J Martin:
I'm fairly sure there's an international convention, often flouted, which requires you to show your national ID sticker when abroad. Ferry companies warn you about it.
Otherwise, when a foreign police force logs you doing 200 mph in car reg XYZ 123 AB (or whatever), they wouldn't know where to start looking for you.
I doubt this has been superseded by the new EU plates, since (a) the national "label" is hard to read at a distance and (b) cars from outside the EU would not be covered. Sure, many motorists did buy a sticker to "fly the flag" but they were following the law by accident! Others bought lots of them, presumably from every country they had ever visited, which must have been quite illegal.
We did check this at the time with the Department of Transport who told us that there was no requirement on Irish drivers when abroad to wear the identity sticker on your car.
While you seem to put forward a logical argument for carrying the stickers, we can only go by what the responsible Government department tells us. After all, surely the Government could not be wrong, could they?