I received an interesting e-mail from my insurance company today which may inform others:

As a Direct Line Insurance policy holder, there is some important information you should know about before driving in the EU if there's a no deal Brexit.
After 29th March, some laws might change. For example, you may need to carry a Green Card to drive a UK vehicle legally in the EU.
So that you can keep track of any new rules, U K Insurance Limited (who underwrite Direct Line Insurance) have created a website to keep drivers up-to-date.
https://u-k-insurance.co.uk/eugreencard.html

Yes I got one from AXA.

Is it more fear tactics or are we past that now. Maybe another insurance tactic to prime us for the premiums going up.
Yes I do have a downer on insurance companies!

Irrespective of what the final act of the pantomime we call Brexit is when the thin lady sings, everyone will get in on the Act, and one thing you can be certain of is that in or out, this will be used by all to soak us public in the land weve come to know as "Rip-off-Britain".

We have been going to Ireland for the past 25 years we have been tripping back and forth three or four times a year and have never needed anything extra not even a passport, only some form of photo identity. (I have great fun in showing my Welsh language readers card for the National Library of Wales) except that Irish law has always demanded that you carry a copy of your insurance documents and your driving licence with you at all times. Irish road fund tax has an element of third party insurance and the document has to be displayed folded in a pocket on the windscreen along with a current tax disc.

Never ever had to have a green card, but the advice now is to get one, so far they are free but with half the drivers in the North now used to slipping back and forth and going to need one, you can imagine the demand, just a matter of time before they charge for them.

As a matter of interest, many Insurance companies will email you a copy, but the regulations are that it must be double sided and green all over and have no white borders, so you have to be able to duplex print on soft card and then cut any white off the card.

Honest it not April 1 yet.

A learned friend assures me that if we come out with no deal at any time in the future, the 1922 agreement will still stand unless the two governments agree to change the terms, which given the unrest it would cause in the country is extremely unlikely. That agreement guarantees freedom of movement between the two countries, UK and Irish Republic, without a passport, so he says. Syd

Syd, the UK and the Republic of Ireland have had a free travel area that pre-dates the EU and the EEC before that. Passports have never been required between these two countries.

With regard to the question of driving in the EU after Brexit, this is not project fear, but still project uncertainty, full of ifs and conditions.

IF we leave without an exit deal AND the European Commission DOES NOT make a decision that insurance will not be checked at the border then you will need a Green Card.
IF we leave without an exit deal AND the European Commission DOES make a decision that insurance will not be checked at the border then you will NOT need a Green Card. The UK Government has confirmed it wishes to stay a member of the Green Card-free circulation zone but this is still waiting formal confirmation by the European Commission.
IF we leave with an exit deal then you will NOT need a Green Card as the UK will remain part of the Green Card-free circulation zone which covers the entirety of the EEA plus Serbia, Andorra and Switzerland.
Depending on the result of the above statements residents of Northern Ireland will or will not need a Green Card to hop across the border to the Republic and vice versa for Republic of Ireland residents.
The regulations on Green Cards have not been updated since the 1970s hence it must be carried in paper form and according to the ABI cannot be delivered electronically.
The advice from the ABI as at 18/03/2019 is

Drivers planning to take their vehicles to the EU, including the Republic of Ireland, should continue to plan for a no-deal Brexit and make arrangements to have a Green Card in time for when they travel

The statements above can also be applied to International Driving Permits where they are needed. The Republic of Ireland does not require drivers to have an IDP so regardless of the way the UK exits the EU IDPs will not be needed in the Republic of Ireland.
Regardless of the above, EU style number plates with the blue circle of stars and the GB identification in the circle will no longer be a valid country identification in the EU and a separate GB sticker must be displayed. A number plate including the GB country identification but without the EU symbol will remain a valid number plate and country identification.