Irish Drivers Association?

Silvera

I saw a piece on Six One News the other night about a protest in Donegal against VRT.

The protest was organised by the 'Irish Drivers Association' ?
Anybody know about this association?

It's a great idea - high time that Irish drivers have a representative assoc!


(I personally had considered starting such an assoc in recent times!)

Supercell

Interested also, anything against VRT gets my support (I know the gov't will probably charge more for petrol as a result..as a low annual milage driver this isnt likely to out weigh the savings if VRT was dumped).

Silvera

I'm interested in this assoc not only for it's attempt to remove VRT, but I hope it will take off 'big time' and get lots of drivers joining all over the country so we can have a real voice when it comes to motoring issues, e.g improved roads, signage, etc etc

I will be joining for sure!!

byte

Here is their website:
http://www.irishdrivers.org/

el tel

Wonder what the Royal Irish Automobile club in Dawson Street do?

SouperComputer

el tel wrote:

Wonder what the Royal Irish Automobile club in Dawson Street do?

motorsport mostly, its now known as motorsportireland.

RobAMerc

We should encourage everyone here at boards to join up, we are been sc*ewd in this country and need to stand up.

Bring back the Axe Tax briggade too.:)

mike65

You still see the occasional faded tattered Axe the Tax sticker on a rear window even now!

Mike.

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

I have read through the entire site www.irishdrivers.org, and I think it is a good idea to have that sort of orginisation.

But some of the assumption and information on the website is incorrect, regarding things such as penality points for seat belt offences.

ballooba

Sounds like a few auld fellahs having a rant. From their site:

Did you know?
You can be fined and suffer penalty points for 'Poor Reversing'. Who decides?

The gardai and the courts. That is what they are there for. Bloody right you should be charged for this.

A simple bulb failure attracts penalty points

Common sense. Most modern cars have three brake lights for a reason. The also have four headlight bulbs for a reason. If a bulb fails it is your responsibility to know and to replace it. In fairness there is not much excuse for driving around with one headlight or on full beams because one bulb is out.

Failure to carry your driving licence attracts penalty points yet has nothing whatever to do with road safety.

Well it means tyhat you can't prove that you have achieved a standard where you are deemed safe to drive.

There is a proposal to impose double penalty points for offences incurred on a bank holiday.

That one could be debated.

69 seperate offences attract penalty points

And?!?!?!?!?

If you contest your conviction in court, and are unsuccessful, there is an automatic imposition of extra penalty points. No discretion is allowed to the courts to take into account any extenuating circumstances.

Fair enough. i'll give them that one (if it's true).

Your car can be seized for non-payment of road tax.

Yeah. Too frickin right. The rest of us pay our tax on time.

If your car is late for its NCT test, you will not be given the full two years, even though you will be charged the full price. A car needs an NCT certificate even when it is off the road.

Eh... that's common sense. Otherwise everyone would procrastinate about getting an NCT to save a few bob.

Sounds like these guys live in the back of beyond and don't bother with things like NCT or Tax.

mike65

Not like (some of) us eh?

Mike.

Stark

ballooba wrote:

Well it means tyhat you can't prove that you have achieved a standard where you are deemed safe to drive.

Well previously if you were pulled and your driving licence wasn't in the car, you'd be given a week to bring it into a garda station. I normally keep mine in my glove compartment but it is possible for someone to forget. It's not like you're endangering other road users by accidentally leaving your licence in your other jacket or anything.

ballooba wrote:

Fair enough. i'll give them that one (if it's true).

Yup, it's true.

maidhc

Stark wrote:

Well previously if you were pulled and your driving licence wasn't in the car, you'd be given a week to bring it into a garda station. I normally keep mine in my glove compartment but it is possible for someone to forget.

Its a complete pain if you drive more than one car. I keep mine in my wallet, and it is now a barely legible piece of pink paper.

It was so sneaky the way they introduced it too. The requirment was enacted in 1994, but only introduced in 2002.

Having said that the Irish Driver's Association website is a bit of an unfocused rant alright

Silvera

I agree, the Association needs to 'tighten up' on some points.

However, I still believe we should all join it. Irish drivers have had no voice for far too long!

If more people join, I believe we will develop a more focused organisation to represent us.

I'm joining.

Silvera.

pburns

I don't have a huge problem with VRT. We have low income tax, if people choose to buy new cars, they pay a tax. The bigger/more expensive they buy, the more they pay.

In the grand scheme of things it's pretty fair - car sales aren't exactly slow, are they?!?

The SIMI want to get rid of it so they have room to increase their own cut...

Velocitee

I believe if VRT was scrapped we'd be seeing a lot more imported cars on our roads as savings could be large/cars could be specced better (some cars being lesser specced in Ireland so as to cheapen base price for a car so as to be competitive)

Silvera

I'm more interested in getting our roads properly engineered, secondary roads properly resurfaced, proper signage, road markings, etc etc etc....than the VRT issue.