The stock of licensed motor vehicles at the end of last year stood at 314,510, down by 0.1 per cent over the previous quarter.

Of these, 79.4 per cent were cars, 14.5 per cent were commercial vehicles, five per cent were motorcycles, and buses and minibuses accounted for less than one per cent.

A total of 3,791 new licences were issued, the majority - 3,080, were for cars. There were 1,819 newly-licensed 'new' motor vehicles and 1,972 ‘used’.

A total of 41 vehicles were exported, 2,571 were garaged and 2,691 were scrapped.