Irish drivers can soon pay backtax at garda checkpoints instead getting their cars seized

Irish drivers caught with unpaid car tax will soon be able to pay what they owe on the spot to avoid their cars being seized.

This is all thanks to an app as part of a new initiative called Garda ACTIVE Mobility Strategy.

Around 50 gardai in Limerick have been trialling a new system which will let them access their email and check a vehicle’s history and tax status while on the move, TheJournal.ie reports.

Dublin driver's excuse for not having tax or insurance doesn't wash with gardai

Assistant Commissioner Dave Sheahan said: “Last Friday – what would happen before was a garda wrote a ticket and then that ticket would be brought back to the station and had to be inputted into a book that would have to be sent to Thurles to put in on the system.

“What we have done now is that we have built an app and with the app you can deal with the person on the side of the road.”

garda checkpoint

Speaking in front of the Policing Authority at Dublin Castle, Mr Sheahan said that one garda stopped a car with eight months of unpaid tax in Limerick last week.

The garda was able to look at the vehicle’s info on the spot and the man could pay his tax for the next 12 months there and then.

Mr Sheahan added: “That has huge implications not only for ourselves but for the Department of Transport and the courts system and we don’t have to tow the car.”