Greetings, Despite the fact that the official information campaign is not due to start until the new year, the front page of the Irish Times Motor Supplement contained a photographic release referring to the changeover.
Unfortunately, the electronic version of the paper did not contain the picture or the accompanying caption, so I can only describe it. The picture (150 x 150) showed the new Minister for Transport displaying a blow-up representation of a car speed dial. The dial displays metric speeds only (in multiples of even tens) with a center legend of "km/h". Alongside is the front end of a car with a license plate bearing the registration "KM/H 2005". The title reads: "GOING METRIC: Kilometres rule from January 20th". The caption reads: "The Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen (right) with Mr Louis O'Hanlon, president, Society of the Irish Motor Industry, join forces at Tom Murphy Car Sales, Waterford City, to announce the availability of cars with kilometre speedometers in anticipation of the changeover to metric speed limits on January 20th 2005". It is significant because it is the first time the new minister has taken a high profile stand in favor of this initiative, which was championed by his predecessor. Most new cars are already shipping with metric instruments, but this is traditionally one of the slowest times of the year for sales, as most people wait until the new year, to get the next year's license plate number. The motor industry obviously wants to get the message across that buying a car before 2005-01-20 does not mean it will have obsolete instrumentation. Tom Wade
