The Irish Motor Tax Office

I find myself in a quite strange situation here. Having driven for over 20 years, I never thought I'd have to take another driving test. Hell, I give tests, I don't take them!

But, in Ireland you can't just swap your existing drivers license for an Irish one, unless you are from the EU or a strange list of selected other countries, which includes South Korea, Japan, and South Africa, but not the USA or Canada.

If your license is not from one of the 'recognized' countries, you have to take the theory test, apply for a learners permit, wait 6 months, and then take a road test for the full license.

I first took the theory test about a month ago. You need 35 / 40 to pass, and I got 34 /40. How depressing, sitting there in a test room with a dozen spotty 17 year olds taking the test, and actually being nervous about it. Oh well, not too many of them passed either. I was too cocky about it and didn't study. Still, it made for a great story to my class the next day on the perils of not studying for exams.

I retook the test on Monday and this time, after only a bit more studying managed to get 39 /40....a pass!

So now onto the next step, that is applying for the learners permit. Go online to download the forms, right? Yep, there's the form the optometrist needs to do the eye test, there's the form for the medical (which I don't need), but where is the actual application form itself? Oh, they don't have that online yet is the response. How difficult is it, when all the other forms are online, and there's an obvious place on the website to put the actual application, to actually put it there?

So now I have to go and visit the Motor Tax Office, in bloody Dublin 8 or some such backwater, to get the paper form. Sigh, a country that in some senses is racing full steam ahead into the 21st Century, and in other places is back in some 1970's timewarp.

But, before I end this rant I must give a shout out to the website http://www.citizensinformation.ie , which has just about the most complete guide available for getting stuff done in Ireland. A great resource!