Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would advise such action. The authority should take it upon itself and the board of the authority should discuss the matter. In my view it is a responsibility of the board to deal with this. Every time I get into a taxi or I am out in Dublin at night I see what is going on and I hear the complaints. I get complaints to my office from all sorts of people from every walk of life. It is time to be proactive on this issue. The authority should decide to regulate the taxi industry and decide to do something. A few years ago, taxi drivers were even marking their cars with notices proclaiming, "Irish taxi driver", accompanied by the tricolour to show that. They seemed to regard this as a good thing to be discriminating in that way. I did not hear of anyone from the taxi regulator doing anything about it at the time. This problem has been around for years. It is time for the authority to get proactive, to go to the Minister, look for extra funding if that is required or to look for the mandate. Otherwise, the board of the authority could take it upon itself to tackle this important issue which will lead to serious problems in the future at ranks, in my view, perhaps leading to violence.