Getting around in Ireland has never been too easy, a combination of geography, population density and poor economic performance have transpired to make travelling for generations of Irish people a one-way affair, principally out of the country.

For those who stayed behind it was Shank's Mare or a pony and trap if you were lucky. In more recent times you could hitch a lift on the back of a tractor or dice with death in a Ford Cortina as you try to get from one end of the road to the other without breaking the suspension on your already unroadworthy vehicle.

Today, though by no means perfect, getting about the Emerald Isle is a damn site easier than it was even a decade ago. For one thing, most people who need them can afford a set of wheels of some description. All that changes however if and when you decide to have children.

Once upon a time, a "family" car was one with a boot big enough to accommodate four kids while the adults took up all the seats when you drove home from the pub. A people carrier was a van, and an SUV was a tractor. A friend of Motormouth fondly remembers one particularly caring father who stuck an old two-seater sofa in the back of the van for the kids. Despite there not being any windows in the back they travelled in relative style.

For Motormouth, the fact that Dad had a Ford Capri meant endless miles of the kids banging their heads on the roof as we trundled along country lanes in the company of suitcases and flasks of tea in the cramped boot but a least we were able to pull faces at those driving behind us.

It all seems so long ago now, and perhaps it was. Today's legislators would recoil in horror if such practices continued. The only people that can get away with speeding now are the guards but only if they are using mobile phones at the same time.

For the hard-pressed parents of modern Ireland food and clothing are not the only expenses involved if you decide to bring a few sprogs into the word. Unless you are Josef Fritzel it's likely you'll want to let your kids out once and a while. Of course in today's world you cannot let them walk anywhere or they will be abducted and murdered so you will definitely need transport.

If like 99.9 per cent of the population, there is no public transport to take you and your brood from where you live to where you are going you'll have to invest in some sort of car. Unlike the old days, it's not the size of the boot you will be looking at in your new vehicle but how many child/booster seats it can accommodate.