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In Ireland there are laws covering the sale and supply of appliances, which require them to be fitted with a BS1363 (IS401) plug, or a permanently fitted adaptor which can only be removed by the use of a tool.

I see plenty of Schuko to BS1363 adaptors on sale in Ireland, but for some reason some retailers keep stocking adaptors which seem to be designed primarily for Swiss, Danish and Italian plugs!

They connect to CEE 7/7 plugs, but do not connect the earth.

The scariest ones I've seen are carried by American, Australian/NZ and Southeast Asian visitors i.e. flimsy multi-standard devices without fuses.

I think the EU should most definitely come up with locked down standards for connection between the handful of standards within the EU's borders.

i.e. there are only 4 systems in use:

CEE 7/7 - the de facto standard across the vast majority of countries.
BS1363 - UK, Ireland, Malta & Cyprus
Italian - Italy
Danish - Denmark

It's not THAT complicated!