Madam, - As the National Car Test was originally introduced to enhance vehicle safety, I was overjoyed to read in The Irish Times of October 15th that a failure will henceforth ensue if the name of the county - in Irish - does not appear on a vehicle's registration plate. This step alone will, I am sure, save hundreds of lives per year.
Perhaps we should extend it to include tourists as well, as I note that many foreign cars do not have this important safety feature installed. The translation into the First Official Language of some of the most exotic ones I have seen around lately, such as Vilnius, Tallinn, or Warsaw, should be enough to keep Eamon Ó Cuiv's bureaucrats busily beavering away for many a day.
Meanwhile, life goes on - and, in a similar vein, I also noted, in the same edition of your paper, that local authorities are apparently exempt from Department of the Environment regulations. In your series of photographs of an incident near a council depot, the truck in question had:
1. Incorrectly fitted reflective markings on the driver's door and offside wing;
2. Half of a rear reflective marking missing;
3. One apparently inoperative tail light.
I'm glad to see that we're finally getting our priorities right. - Yours, etc.,
D.K. HENDERSON, Castle Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3.