Over 5,000 motorists fined for illegal number plates as gardaí ramp up roadside checks

Seán McCárthaigh

Over 5,000 motorists have been fined for having illegal registration plates on their vehicles in the first five months since gardaí have had enforcement powers to issue fixed charge notices for the offence.

New figures published by the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, show a total of 5,059 vehicles were detected with non-compliant number plates between October 2025 and last month.

The most fines issued among the 21 Garda divisions were to motorists in the Louth/Cavan/Monaghan division, with 505, approximately 1 in 10 of all number plate offences detected to date.

Other divisions with relatively high numbers of detections are Laois/Offaly (497); Mayo/Roscommon/Longford (441); Cork County (431), and Galway (388).

In contrast, fewer than 100 number plate offences have been detected in several other divisions, including Cork City, Dublin East, Donegal, Limerick and Meath/Westmeath.

Exact figures for those divisions are not available as published data for months where there are fewer than 10 offences recorded are excluded for reasons of data protection.

The figures, which were released in response to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD Emer Currie, show monthly detection rates peaked in November with 1,451 number plate offences recorded.

However, the monthly total of recorded offences has fallen below 900 since the start of the current year.

Since October 1st, 2025, gardaí have been able to issue a fine of €60 for each non-compliant registration plate as a result of upgrades to the Garda Mobility App which allows offenders to be identified in real time.

The Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023 allows gardaí to issue fixed charge notices for number plate offences, while regulations giving effect to the legislation were signed in May 2024.

However, enforcement was not possible until several months ago due to issues with the handheld devices used by gardaí at roadside checkpoints.

The chairperson of the road safety campaign group, PARC, Susan Gray, said the high number of detections in most counties over recent months highlighted the level of the problem.

Gray also criticised the delay in giving gardaí the powers to actually enforce legislation relating to number plates.

“It [is] beggars belief that a law passed in June 2023 was only implemented six months ago after I alerted TDs of the issue,” she added.

Gray questioned how many lawbreakers were able to avoid sanction because of the delay.

Road safety groups are concerned that some motorists use illegal plates to avoid detection of other road traffic offences, such as speeding, as well as frustrating camera-based tolling systems.

Commenting on the figures, Currie said the prevalence of illegal licence plates on Irish roads shows “a disregard for our traffic laws and gives the impression that enforcement is lacking.”

Currie said the reality of road traffic enforcement is that she and PARC had to campaign to see the law on illegal number plates actually be implemented, despite strong legislation being in place for over two years.

However, the Dublin West TD said the figures since enforcement began last October were “encouraging.”

“They show the law was necessary and that it is now being used by gardaí. But the numbers could be higher again,” she added.

Currie claimed that ultimately more gardaí are needed in roads policing units to enforce laws governing illegal number plates and other road traffic offences.

Reasons why vehicles can be deemed to be non-compliant include plates with custom fonts, 3D/4D designs, incorrect sizes and colours or missing the EU flag or IRL mark.

Plates are also required to have a reflective white background on both the front and rear of the vehicle as well as having the county name in Irish.

“Stealth” designs on plates which can evade automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems are also illegal.

Revenue officials also have powers to levy far more substantial fines of up to €5,000 to motorists found with illegal registration plates.

Official figures also show that 366 cases so far have been sent to court.

However, O’Callaghan said a large number of fixed charge notices are still within the active interval for payment of the fine due to the short timeframe since the introduction of the offence.