Finance Act, 1992

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Registration of vehicles by Revenue Commissioners.

131.—(1) (a) The Commissioners shall establish and maintain a register of all vehicles in the State (in this Chapter referred to subsequently as “the register”).

(b) The Commissioners may enter in the register such particulars in relation to a vehicle and its ownership and connected matters as they consider appropriate.

(c) The Commissioners may amend an entry in or delete an entry from the register.

(d) The register may be established and maintained in a form that is not legible if it is capable of being converted into a legible form.

(2) (a) The prescribed particulars of each vehicle that, on or after the 1st day of January, 1993, is not a registered vehicle shall be declared to the Commissioners for the purposes of registration.

(b) A vehicle in relation to which the prescribed particulars have been furnished under this subsection shall be deemed to be a registered vehicle.

(3) (a) Where a registered vehicle is converted, the prescribed particulars shall be declared to the Commissioners for the purpose of the entry in the register of particulars in relation to the conversion and the Commissioners may enter in the register such particulars in relation to the conversion as they consider appropriate.

(b) The owner of a vehicle which has been converted shall deliver to the Commissioners with the declaration under paragraph (a) in relation to the conversion the certificate in relation to the vehicle and the Commissioners shall enter on the certificate such particulars in relation to the conversion as they consider appropriate.

(4) A person shall not have in his possession or charge after the 1st day of January, 1993, an unregistered vehicle or a converted vehicle as respects which the prescribed particulars in relation to the conversion have not been declared to the Commissioners unless the person is an authorised person or the vehicle is the subject of an exemption under section 135 in force for the time being.

(5) The Commissioners shall assign in the prescribed manner a unique identification mark to each vehicle entered in the register and shall issue to the owner of the vehicle a certificate of registration in the prescribed form in respect of each such vehicle.

(6) (a) There shall be displayed in the prescribed manner on each registered vehicle in the State the identification mark assigned to it under subsection (5).

(b) An identification mark assigned to a vehicle under subsection (5) shall not be displayed on any other vehicle.

(c) A mark which purports to be but is not an identification mark assigned to a vehicle under subsection (5) shall not be displayed on a vehicle.

(d) A person (other than an authorised person) shall not have in his possession or charge a vehicle in respect of which there is a contravention of paragraph (a).

(e) A person shall not have in his possession or charge a vehicle in respect of which there is a contravention of paragraph (b) or (c).

(7) The Minister for the Environment shall have access to and may inspect and examine the register and—

(a) may take, or be supplied by the Commissioners with, such information from the register as he considers appropriate for the purpose of his functions, and

(b) take, or be supplied by the Commissioners with, copies of the register or of such extracts from the register as he considers appropriate for the purpose of his functions.

(8) The Roads Act, 1920 , is hereby amended, with effect from the 1st day of January, 1993, by the substitution of the following section for section 6:

“6. (1) On the first application to a licensing authority for a licence in respect of a vehicle under section 1 of the Finance (Excise Duties) (Vehicles) Act, 1952 , the authority shall not issue the licence unless and until the authority is satisfied that the vehicle has been registered in the register maintained under section 131 of the Finance Act, 1992.

(2) For the purposes of this section, a certificate of registration under the said section 131 or such other (if any) evidence as the Minister for the Environment may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, direct shall be sufficient evidence of the registration of the vehicle in the register aforesaid.”.