Instead, Mayor John Gilligan says he will continue driving the 08-registered mayoral car, which was first presented to his predecessor, Cllr Ger Fahy, last year.

Traditionally the "1" registration plate has been reserved for the first citizen of each of the major cities but Mayor Gilligan told the Limerick Leader this Thursday that he decided not to take up the option of securing the 09-L-1 registration as he could not justify spending the pre-registration fee.

"I know that it has been a long-standing tradition and I am sorry that I had to break with tradition but I felt that a charge of a €1,000 for pre-registering the licence plate number simply could not be justified, especially given the current economic climate," he said.

It was also revealed this Thursday that Cllr Gilligan and officials at City Hall sought to have the pre-registration fee waived but that their request was turned down by Department of Finance officials.

"I did ring the Minister's office and I did request that given the fact that it is part of the civic structure of the city could he not give up the fee and I was told no, he couldn't possibly do that," said Mayor Gilligan.

A spokesperson for the "cherished numbers" section of the Revenue's Vehicle Registration Unit confirmed that the charge for pre-registering cars increased from €315 last year to €1,000 in 2009. She also said that the registration number reserved for the Mayor of Limerick would not be allocated to anybody else.

Mayor Gilligan and his counterpart in Galway, Cllr Pádraig Conneely, are the only first citizens in the country who have chosen not to take up the option of securing the "1" registration within their respective local authority areas.

The Lord Mayors of Dublin and Cork have already taken possession of their newly registered cars, as has the Mayor of Waterford.

A spokesperson for Limerick City Council stated the decision by Mayor Gilligan not to purchase the 09-L-1 registration would not impact on the lease arrangement relating to the provision of the mayoral car.