just spent the day replacing a irs gearbox seal only problem is instead of vw useing a circlip with 2 little holes for a pair of circlip pliers they have used a circlip with the ends taped inwards, these are a right pain to get out and to replace, my question is,,,, is there a special tool to get these circlips out or something i can mod for the future??? also the oil seal i took out was about 8mm wide but the one that machine 7 supplied me was a bit wider, it does fit but only just, did this part get upgraded to a wider one or is there 2 different widths for the irs gearbox

tapered end clips are a pain, never seen a specific tool for them as external ones come off with standard circlip pliers and internal ones are best removed with a couple of screwdrivers or alike one to lever then end out and one small thin blade to get in behind it as it clears the groove then work around.
I would guess in mass production they would be fitted in a tube closed up or on a tube to expand them then just pushed off the end to snap into the groove.

no idea on the seal sizes.

can they be replaced with normal external circlips snoopy make removing them sooooo much easier took me nearly 1.5 hours to get the standard ones back in

The normal ones should be fine. Never tried but it may be possible to drill circlips with a carbide drill if there is enough width so you can use your pliers. 
Hopefully once fitted this time they will never need to be removed again.

would have to be new , no where near enough meat on them to drill holes in them