Cars displaying CD plates give their users motoring freedom about which the rest of us can only dream.
Deep discounts on your new Mercedes-Benz and tax exemptions like no VRT and no road tax - it sounds like a recipe for perfect motoring and it's one enjoyed by a small, but telling, number of motorists. They're the ones using cars with CD plates, belonging to embassies and senior diplomats posted to those embassies.
The motoring privileges granted to the diplomatic corps are assured under the Vienna Convention of 1961, which sets out in detail the protection granted to diplomatic missions the world over and the immunities granted diplomats in the country where they are serving.
The arcane world of diplomats is well summed up in the correct title of any ambassador to Ireland: "Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ireland".
In recent years, there's been a huge rise in the number of diplomatic missions resident in Dublin, 54 at the last count, as well as four other diplomatic missions: the General Delegation of Palestine, UNHCR, the EU Commission and the European Parliament.
A further 58 embassies are accredited to Ireland but are resident abroad, mainly in London, but their diplomats would drive here from time to time.
According to Aoife McGarry, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, the CD plates on diplomatic cars are an international custom and have no legal standing: "The immunities accorded to the Diplomatic Corps lie with the individual diplomat, not with the vehicle." McGarry adds that members of the diplomatic corps have a duty under the Vienna Convention to respect the laws and regulations of the state.
They are not exempted or excused from any parking or speeding fines that they incur. "Similarly,they are required to take out car insurance in case of an accident, just like any member of the public."
No precise figures are available as to how many CD plates are in use in Ireland but it's believed to total around 250.
If a car with CD plates is in an accident, it might be that getting recompense may be easier said than done, if the embassy in question claims diplomatic immunity,which happened quite regularly in the past. One of the protocols of the Vienna Convention is that diplomats are protected from having to give evidence as a witness in a court of law. Neither is that diplomat liable to any form of arrest or detention.
However, AA spokesman Conor Faughnan says he hasn't come across any problems motorists have had with CD plated cars - "That's not to say it doesn't happen, but it must be very rare." He adds the consoling thought that if an AA member did get into this situation, the AA would get involved to help out.
Faughnan adds that if anyone is unfortunate enough to collide with a diplomatic car, it's no different from a collision with anyone else. "You just deal with it in the normal way and if you must have a collision, it's much better doing it with a diplomatic car than an uninsured car. They're by far the bigger hazard."
Similarly, John Casey, chief executive officer of the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland, checked their records for the past year and found no indication of any claim involving a car with a CD plate.
Just as top hats and morning suits are de rigueur for formal functions for the diplomatic corps in the Áras, so too is the Mercedes-Benz S-series, in black - it's seen as the "official" car of the diplomatic corps. Mercedes-Benz has long had a close relationship with the diplomatic corps worldwide, but Graham Smith, spokesperson for Motor Distributors in Dublin, says that the company won't disclose any details of customer identity, both for customer confidentiality and security reasons.
Mercedes-Benz does good discounts for members of the diplomatic corps and embassies, although again no details are available.
It's normal practice for an embassy to have several vehicles registered in its own name,including the ambassador's car. Sometimes vehicles used by embassies can be prosaic, in other words, vans.
Also senior diplomats are responsible for choosing their own cars, to which they add the customary CD plates. Occasionally, you'll see CD plates on a people carrier, rather than a standard car, but an SUV with a CD plate is a real rarity.
Michael McClellan, counsellor for public diplomacy in the US embassy, says that apart from the cars provided for specific embassy officers, such as the ambassador, the diplomatic staff all buy their own cars. He says that glancing round their parking lot, there's the same full range of tastes and budgets as you'd find anywhere else. He has a new Suzuki Jimny on order and he can't wait to get it.
Sometimes the system can be abused. Eamon Delaney, author of An Accidental Diplomat and now editor of Magill magazine,says that when he was working in the Irish diplomatic mission at the UN in New York, traffic violations by CD cars were frequent.Some diplomats, like the Cubans, took great delight in thumbing their collective noses at local traffic restrictions. "You'd often see cars with CD plates parked even in the hedgerows in Central Park," he adds.
Such was the scale of abuse that in 2002 the city of New York did away with the diplomatic exemptions from traffic violations. Eventually the situation had got so bad that the worst offender, the Egyptians, had clocked up 15,000 parking tickets and owed $1.6 million in unpaid parking fines, which of course were never paid. Other bad offenders included Brazil, Greece, Kuwait and Nigeria.
Tragically, CD plates don't always provide immunity for those inside diplomatic cars. Just over a year ago, Irish-born Archbishop Michael Courtney, the Vatican's Papal Nuncio to Burundi in central Africa, was travelling in a diplomatic car with CD plates, flying the Vatican flag, but that didn't stop him being killed in an ambush.
But for those diplomats enjoying the good life on the embassy circuit in Dublin, which is a very popular posting on the global diplomatic trail, having CD plates is one of those time-honoured traditions, granting certain privileges that are well beyond the ambitions of us ordinary motoring mortals.
CD plates: what their users drive:
EU COMMISSION offices, Dublin: Senior staff don't use CD plates
FRANCE: Ambassador Frédéric Grasset is driven in a Peugeot 407. The embassy also uses two Citroën vans. Other diplomatic staff use either Peugeot or Citroën
GERMANY: Ambassador Gottfried Haas uses a VW Phaeton. Of the 11 other diplomats in the embassy, about seven or eight drive German cars - BMW, Mercedes and VW
BRITAIN: The embassy has a long-standing practice of not commenting on any of the cars it uses, for security reasons
ITALY: Ambassador Alberto Schepisi uses an Alfa Romeo 166, an executive saloon with a difference
JAPAN: It's up to individual diplomats to choose their cars,but they're mostly Japanese. The embassy doesn't use any Mercedes
NIGERIA: Ambassador Mandu Ekpo Ekong-Omaghomim uses a Mercedes
SWEDEN: The embassy uses two Volvos, but it's up to other diplomats what car they drive - they don't have to be Swedish
US: No official comment from embassy on cars used by diplomats, for security reasons