Impersonal plates only, folks

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has poured cold water on any feverish ideas that personalised number plates could be brought into Ireland. Mr Noonan said the Irish market was too small and that the number of so-called 'vanity plates' would not justify the expense of introducing a separate registration system for them.

Currently, specific registration numbers can be reserved, at a cost of €1,000 each – hence the number of Porsche’s one might see driving around with, for instance, 151-D-911 attached to the back.

The quashing of any hope of a personalised plate system is in stark contrast to that in the UK, where private numberplates are big business. The UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) regularly keeps back plates with combinations of letters and numbers which may, conceivably, make up a word or someone’s name. These are then auctioned off to the public, and some of them can go for staggeringly large amounts of money.

So far, the DVLA is reckoned to have brought in an additional £2-billion from private plates, and that’s not counting the VAT income from trading of private plates which goes on in the aftermarket sphere.

The most expensive plate yet sold was auctioned off by the DVLA last November – registration 25 O was bought by John Collins, a specialist Ferrari dealer. The plate is intended to grace one of the hugely expensive Ferrari 250 GT cars which pass through his hands.

Mr Collins paid the DVLA a massive £518,000 for 25 O – and was prepared to pay much more. “It was a question of holding one’s nerve until the very end,” he said. “I’m glad it stopped where it stopped - £520,000. You could buy a couple of nice cars with that. I hate to say it but it could have been the first £1 million number plate. I’m glad it wasn’t, but I hope one day it will be.”