Getting a car in UK, with Irish Driving Licence

[DeliaOwens]

Right lads, can someone help me out here? I really need some pointers as I have been going around in a loop.

In brief:
*Irish 18 year old, Irish drivers license
*Now in UK at Uni, placements mean a car is going to going to be needed. I want to buy there, DH wants to ship her old (08) car across but I can’t see insurance being any easier this way.
*It seems insurance is going to be difficult and expensive unless she transfers her licence, but this will complicate things when she is home.

I’m trying to balance needs for both jurisdictions and it seems, I can’t.

Does anyone how of company or insurance broker who can help with this?

OR

Do we just get her to sit UK Drivers test and she will have both licenses?

Or is there a solution I have yet to consider?

Thanks in advance.

Having moved between UK and Ireland I would say easiest way is - buy UK car in UK and insure it in UK. There are a few companies that will insure on an Irish license in UK but possibly not at 18. It is easy to transfer a full license both in UK and Ireland so change to UK license and insurance will be expensive but easier. If you keep the UK car (and cars are less expensive in UK) when going back to Ireland you won’t have to pay tax/import duties if it is your only personal vehicle.

@allmycats Thanks, really appreciate your lived experience on this. I’m back in Ireland since mid 90s and whilst I go back and forth, I don’t have current info.
Your take is what my gut is saying. But her Dad is not onboard re: buying car in UK (and I can’t figure out why, we have savings that will cover the costs)

Importing a car to UK from Ireland is a bloody nightmare compared to UK to Ireland. I am a qualified accountant and still had to use a middleman agency even after I had obtained my UK nova (notification of vehicle arrival). I had to provide original purchase documents and that it met UK specifications. The mad thing was it had previously been a UK car and I had a photo copy of the original registration documents.
Under the Irish system I filled in online form and copy purchase and V5 docs. Got a letter with appointment time to take car (in my case to Tullamore) where they did a quick check over and issued a document to take to get new number plates and I was away - all in a couple of weeks. This time in the UK it took May to October!

@allmycats Jaysus…what a palaver re: Ire to England. Thanks for giving me just cause to put an end to this discussion in my house! Much appreciated.

Have you considered getting a uk provisional licence and sitting the test. I imagine you could do that without lessons, or perhaps just one or two around the examined roads ?

there are specialist brokers who cover non uk drivers licence but they are not cheap. I’ll dig out the details tomorrow and post again

@finallyhere We had suggested this. It is not SF ok nothing they relish the thought of, but will do it if necessary as she wants to be mobile ASAP.