I agree it's not the fault of the "front-line", and the issue really lies in the whole idea of road tax (aka "motor tax"), but that's a separate discussion. However, the idea behind the public service is to serve the public, and this just isn't happening. If a restaurant or a book shop, as an example, decided to run the same opening hours as these motor tax offices, how long would they stay in business. It's not my problem that they can't cope with this new system, that should have been anticipated beforehand. If the government really wanted their "missing €80 million" from motor tax, they would have made it easier on everyone involved

The problem is that the government just wants everyone spending again, be it houses, new cars, whatever, as that's where they get their filthy lucre through VAT, VRT, stamp duty, etc. A few quid from car tax is feck all in comparison, so they're trying to force the hand of older car owners. Sure it's going on everywhere eg they've cut the interest rates on savings accounts again and raiding pensions, IMO to force people away from these sensible options into spending, in the blinkered view of getting the problems in this little country resolved short-term, and then hopefully the serious long-term issues will be some other group of politician's problem down the line

And breath...rant over...