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Irish vehicle license plates
In Ireland, commonly referred to as the Republic of Ireland, vehicle registration plates (commonly known as "number plates" or "registration plates") are the visual indications of motor vehicle registration – officially termed "index marks" – which it has been mandatory since 1903 to display on most motor vehicles used on public roads in Ireland. The alphanumeric marks (or "registration numbers") themselves are issued by the local authority in which a vehicle is first registered.

The YY format was used between 1987 2012. This format displayed the last two digits of the year the car was registered. For example, the 12,345th car registered in Dublin in 2001 would display 01 D 12345. The YYY format has been in use since 2013. This amends the original format to include the digits 1 or 2 after the year. These numbers are used depending on the time of year the vehicle is registered. Vehicles registered in the January June period display a 1, while vehicles registered from July December display a 2. Under this format, the 12,345th vehicle registered in the second period of 2022 would display 222 D 12345.

Since 1991, the design of the standard Irish number plate has been based on European standard guidelines, with a blue vertical band to the left of the plate containing the twelve stars of the Flag of Europe, below which is the country identifier for Ireland: IRL. The rest of the plate has a white background with black characters. There are usually two hyphens; between the year and county code, and between the county code and sequence number. Also required on vehicles registered is the full Irish language name of the county/city which must be positioned above the identifier. as amended by the Vehicle Registration and Taxation (Amendment) Regulations 2012. These prescribe the format, dimensions and technical specifications of registration plates to be displayed on vehicles. They substitute the First Schedule of the Vehicle Registration and Taxation Regulations, 1992 to allow additional characters to be displayed on the registration plate and to ensure that these are displayed in the correct position and proportion. The changes were necessary to cater for increases in the number of car registrations. A standard uniform character font is not required. The rules simply require legible black sans serif characters, no more than 70mm high and 36mm wide with a stroke width of 10mm, on a white reflective background. The result is that a large variety of perfectly legal font styles may be seen, on either pressed aluminium or acrylic plates, both of which are allowed. A vehicle's number plate is determined when it is first registered, the county/city code is taken from the first owner's postal address. Registration remains fixed on one vehicle until it is de registered (exported, destroyed, etc. ), and cannot be transferred to other vehicles.

Sequence numbers may be reserved for new vehicle registrations only on completion of form VRT15A and payment of €1,000. This reservation was withdrawn from used imported vehicles on first Irish registration in 2015. Most registration numbers can be reserved, with the exception of the first number of each year issued in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford as these are reserved for the respective mayor/lord mayor of these cities. Thus, for example, in 2019, Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, was entitled to receive the registration plate 191 D 1 on his official vehicle. Luxury cars with numeric names are often registered with a matching, usually pre reserved sequence number: for example 06 D 911 on a Porsche 911 or 06 D 750 BMW 750 or 03 C 5 for a 2003 Citroen C5 and 08 D 89 for an Aston Martin DB9. Dublin radio station FM104 tend to register their vehicles with reserved number sequences ending with "104", e. g. 05 D 38104. There are only two pre 1987 codes still issued in Ireland. "ZZ", administered by the AA Ireland as agents for the Revenue Commissioners, is given to registrants who are based outside the state and who only intend keeping the vehicle within Ireland for a period not exceeding one month. This form of temporary registration is usually used for vehicles that are purchased within Ireland but exported by its new owner to another sovereign state directly after purchase. The format of the code is ZZ followed by a five digit number. "ZV", which can be selected as an alternative to the current scheme when registering a vehicle older than 30 years for the first time in Ireland.

Imported used cars are registered based on the year of first registration in their country of original registration rather than the year of import. Each county had continuous sequence numbers for vehicles so if a new car registered on 31 December 2010 was 10 D 37456, then the next registered car from 2010 registered in 2011 would be 10 D 37457. This changed in late 2011 when each county (prior to 2010) had their next available sequence number increased. For example, 10 D 120006 would be the 6th import in Dublin of a car from 2010, as Dublin's re registration band starts at 120000. Meath's starts at 15000. Vehicles registered to the Irish Defence Forces have plates with silver letters on black background. These do not feature the Irish language county name. Trade plates have plates with white letters on a dark green background. Diplomatic plates are very similar to civilian format, except for the small "CD" between the index mark code and serial number. Code CD is not always shown in Diplomatic plates.

The city codes are a single letter, the initial letter of its English language name. Most county codes use the first and last letters of the county's name. For example, Sligo is SO. The exceptions to this are:
The "D" code which is used for County Dublin is co extensive and is in use for the counties of Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown and Dublin City. Where the county shares its registration function with the city of the same name, in which case both use the single letter code. An example of this is County Cork, which shares the same name with Cork City, and takes the code "C". Where a conflict exists, i. e. Kerry is KY, so Kilkenny is KK; and County Waterford was (until 2014) WD, so Wexford is WX. The "T" code which is used County Tipperary. This is because the county was, until 2014, divided into North (TN) and South (TS). The codes are similar to the ISO 3166 2 codes for Irish counties. An exception is that the ISO code for Cork is IE CO, since IE C is used for the province of Connacht, and the ISO code for Tipperary is IE TA (from the Irish name Tiobraid Árann).

From 1903, the system used in Ireland was part of the original British system of identifiers. This was superseded in Ireland on 1 January 1987. A two letter code containing the letter I was allocated to each administrative county in alphabetical order (the full list appears below), with the initial registration format being the code followed by a sequence number from 1 to 9999, as in Great Britain. The codes allocated ran from IA to IZ, then from AI to WI, with the letters G, S, and V skipped as these were intended for Scotland. In 1921, shortly before the creation of the Irish Free State, Belfast and Dublin City completed their original marks and thus took the next available codes, XI and YI respectively, with Dublin City then taking ZI in 1927. After this, most other codes with Z as the first letter (again skipping those containing G, S and V) were allocated in alphabetical order, starting with single letter Z – the only one letter code used in Ireland – for County Dublin. (This does not include the ZZ code for temporary imports, introduced in 1925.) In February 1952, a joint motor taxation authority was set up for Dublin City and county, and their codes were merged. Two years later, with all possible codes (at the time) allocated, a new format was introduced with a serial letter added before the code, and the sequence number running only to 999 (thus limiting the number of characters on a number plate to six). The Dublin joint authority was the first to adopt this format when it issued ARI 1 in May 1954, and each county followed suit once all its two letter combinations had been issued. In the case of counties with more than one code, all the three letter marks for the first allocated code would be issued, then all such marks for the second code, and so on (see the lists of series per county below). G, S and V were not used as serial letters at first, while Z was not used before a code starting with that letter, so as to prevent any clashing with ZZ temporary registrations. Several other three letter marks were not issued through oversight or because they were deemed offensive, and the single letter Z code was left out of this format as a serial letter would have created a duplicate of an existing two letter code, particularly one used in Northern Ireland. Initially, all number plates had been black with white or silver characters, but in 1969 the option of black on white at the front and black on red at the rear was introduced. In February 1970, the Dublin joint authority exhausted all its three letter combinations and thus began issuing "reversed" registrations, starting with the original two letter codes (plus single letter Z) in order of allocation. These were followed from July 1974 onwards by the three letter marks (1 ARI etc. ), issued in the same manner as for the forward versions. Again, other counties followed this example over time. Also in 1974, Cork followed Dublin's example of setting up a joint motor taxation authority for city and county, though their codes were not merged until August 1985. In 1982, with Dublin and several other counties having exhausted all possible combinations of their original codes, it was decided to allocate the skipped codes containing G, S and V to these counties. In the cases of these codes, the forward three letter combinations were issued first in the same manner as before, followed by the forward two letter combinations. Under this system, Irish vehicle registration marks could be transferred to Britain for re registration on other vehicles, even after Irish independence, and even though they could not be re used within Ireland. The letter I in many combinations made these attractive for collectors, and indeed the Kilkenny issue VIP 1 has fetched a record price at auction. Since the introduction of the current system in 1987, such exports have been impossible, even for old format registrations, although those already exported may still be re transferred. The 1987 system allocated single letter codes to the county boroughs (including those shared with counties) and two letter codes to the other counties. Normally these are the initial and final letter of the English language name of the county (except where duplicates would result). Until 1991, all plates under this system consisted solely of black characters on white, on both front and rear. However, in that year, the blue EU identifier and the official Irish language name of the county were added, the latter as a result of the controversy arising from using English as the basis, described by Conradh na Gaeilge, an organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide, as "a fiasco". Vehicles first registered outside the state before 1987 are allowed to be re registered using only the current system, with a year number preceding 87 – for instance, a vehicle from 1964 re registered in Meath would have 64 MH at the start of its registration. In 2013, the year was changed to a 3 digit year with the third digit being 1 for January to June and 2 for July to December, for example, 131 for January–June 2013 and 132 for July–December 2013.