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Ireland — driver's guide
Verified links and explanations for drivers: inspection, service, motorway vignette, tolls, accident help.
Motorway vignette
Important: Ireland drives on the left — for a driver from continental Europe this is the single biggest adjustment, more important than any paperwork. Ireland has no motorway vignette, so there is nothing to buy: any website offering an "Irish vignette" is selling something that does not exist. The real cost to watch is the barrier-free M50 toll around Dublin (see the toll section).
Road tolls incl. barrier-free M50
The number one trap for foreign drivers in Ireland: the M50 motorway around Dublin has no toll booths. Cameras read your number plate and you must pay yourself by 20:00 the day after you drive it — at eflow.ie, in the eFlow app, by phone, or at a Payzone shop. There is nothing to pay at the roadside, so many visitors discover the toll only when the penalty letter arrives. Miss the deadline and a toll of about 3.70 EUR becomes a penalty of about 41 EUR, plus 30–50 EUR admin fees if you drive a rental car; persistent non-payment is an offence. All other Irish tolls are normal barriers paid on the spot — do not assume the M50 works the same way.
Go to the official purchase ↗Emergency numbers
Both 112 and 999 work in Ireland for all emergency services. In an accident with injuries, call 112 or 999 and stay at the scene.
Open the official source ↗National Car Test (NCT)
The NCT (National Car Test) is Ireland's mandatory roadworthiness test: a car is first tested at 4 years old, then every 2 years, and annually once it is 10 years old. Important: in Ireland the abbreviation VRT stands for Vehicle Registration Tax, not the vehicle test — do not confuse it with Malta, where VRT is the name of the roadworthiness test.
Open the official source ↗Service / repair
Servicing and repairs carry no state obligation in Ireland — this is purely a commercial matter between you and the garage of your choice.