There is now a major delay between a used car being sold and the new owner's details being input into the national vehicle database, according to motor industry sources.
The delay is such that it is leading to cases where the wrong families have been informed that their relatives have been involved in a car accident, as well as allowing some motorists to escape penalty points, a major car dealer has claimed.
As a result, the motor industry is demanding that a real-time online service for registering change of ownership details be introduced immediately for used cars. The industry cites an average two-week delay and, in some cases of up to two months, between a used car being sold and the new owner's details appearing on the national database.
Dealers are also complaining that it takes even longer for the Garda vehicle database to be updated.
According to a Garda spokesperson, the force receives change of ownership details only after the Vehicle Licensing Unit in Shannon has sent through a weekly update. It then takes a further week for these details to be put into the Garda system. This means it can take on average a month between a person buying a used car and the Garda database being updated.
This situation is unacceptable, say motor dealers, and is causing them major problems with fixed penalty notices and fines being issued either to them or to a car's previous owner simply because the new owner's details had not been input in time.
The problem is exacerbated if a motorist sells on a car soon after buying it from the garage. Dealers complain that it's often left to them to try to resolve the issue of who was driving the car when a fixed penalty was issued. This, they say, is costing them time and money and is a problem that can be easily resolved.
Ciaran Rogers, of Rogers Garage in Dundalk, says the present system is unacceptable: "The problem is that there is always a two- to three-week time lag between the customer getting their car and a change in the registration details being input at Shannon."
Delays are further increased because of a reliance on An Post to deliver the documents, rather than by them being sent via e-mail or a secure online form.
The registration delay can also cause problems for new owners when they try to tax their car - they can find that they are not recorded as the registered owners. In addition, the delay can also cause wider and more distressing problems. "Our local gardaí have admitted to us that there is a recurrent problem of establishing the correct ownership of a vehicle," says Rogers. "I've even heard of incidents where the wrong people were informed of an accident because the system had not been updated.
"It's imperative that ownership is attributed immediately there is a change. The solution is simple: if a customer comes in to buy a used car, we should be able to input their details online and in real-time."
Currently car dealers can register ownership details of new cars online, but cannot do so for used cars. Instead, they must enter the new owner's details by hand, and post them to national Vehicle Registration Unit in Shannon.
A garda spokesman agreed that it's possible that mistakes are made when identifying motorists involved in accidents, but he claimed that such incidents would be rare.
The SIMI, the industry's representative body, is calling for changes. "Certain elements of Ireland's vehicle registration and road taxation system are extremely effective, specifically the facility to carry out an initial registration and the renewal of road tax online," explains SIMI deputy chief executive Alan Nolan.
"However, there are two major deficiencies with the system. Neither the procedures for change of ownership nor first-time road taxation of a new vehicle can be carried out online. Therefore it can take an inordinate amount of time for the businesses involved, in some cases requiring long distance travel from their place of business.
"Given that we already have similar services online, it should be possible to carry out a change of ownership and road tax a new vehicle on-line."
However, the Vehicle Registration Unit in Shannon disputes that there is any significant problem, saying that the average delay between receipt of a change of ownership document and it being input into the national database is just six working days. During busy periods this delay can reach 10 working days, they claim.
A spokeswoman for the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which has overall responsibility for vehicle licensing, said that it is working to resolve the time issue. "To follow on from the success of the Revenue online service, we are now working to introduce an on-line registration service for used vehicles," she says.