Importing from EU?

You can do a VRT calculation here:

Keep in mind that this is just an estimate and you will have to present your car at an NCT centre to get an actual price, but its usually fairly close.

You will have to get quotes from various insurance companies. Yes your history of no accidents will help you, although it may still be expensive if you've never held a motor insurance policy in Ireland before. Before you register the car you could get insurance quotes using the vehicle details.

I must stress this point, phone the insurance companies. Online quotes are often completely inaccurate.

@Cristianc The European Commission has recently launched infringement procedures against Ireland in relation to VRT. You may be interested to know that a lot of EU Citizens in your situation have complained to the European Union about Ireland's illegal Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) regime for obvious reasons. I encourage you to also bring your situation to the attention of the European Commission because it will help to force the Irish Government into scrapping this illegal tax on pre-owned Vehicle imports from the EU and help bring down prices. I believe that leasing a car from another EU Country which the Commission has recently forced the Irish Government to exempt from VRT once it enters the Irish state may be one option available to you. There is a huge amount of information out there on this.

OP you said you're considering buying RHD car on the continent to bring it here.

Vast majority of RHD cars on the continent were second hand imports from UK or Ireland, so if you could find one which was exported from Ireland, and VRT refund was not claimed on it upon export, then when registering it will be VRT exempt, as VRT was already paid on it.

It would be however difficult to establish that facts, except for scenario where you find a seller who imported that car from Ireland beforehand himself and didn't reclaim VRT here.

It's just a thought.

All countries have fees for registering cars. Vehicle registration fee is €40 in Germany and £55 in the UK. Ours is just insanely high but its not illegal.