I drove through a Garda checkpoint yesterday. Nothing too unusual about that. I've been through far too many in the past. Usually they're checking for up-to-date tax and insurance. A couple of times during the summer of 2005 I was stopped on the M50 by armed police who were clearly trying to do something about the spate of kidnappings at the time. (Probably have to do something like that again).
Yesterday, was different. Most of us drivers were simply waved through, but the Gardaí had about 7 or 8 cars pulled over. Every single car had license plates from another EU state. Is there a crackdown on all those E. European cars that are on the roads here?
It's pretty obvious that most of those who own E. European-registered cars are not just visiting, which means they should be taxing and insuring those cars here. Taxing and insuring those cars in Ireland will make them a much less attractive proposition.
I don't have a problem with this as it does seem that E. Europeans are involved in a disproportionate number of fatal crashes here. In fact, it's not far from what I wanted done back in May.
