Mr. Hugh Creegan:

The first thing the Deputy mentioned was single taxi drivers not getting appropriate representation on the taxi advisory committee. The membership of the advisory committee is outside the ambit of the NTA. The Minister appoints the membership so we have no role.

The Deputy had a number of questions about how the local area hackney works. It was one of the recommendations in the Government review. In rural areas, where people find it difficult to access services, we needed to devise a solution and the solution was a local area hackney. It tries to strike a balance between catering for people who genuinely do not have their transport needs met and not taking away the livelihoods of industry people trying to deliver the service in the area. It tries to strike a balance between the two. It is a hackney licence and, before it can be granted, the applicant needs two key elements. The first is the endorsement of a local not-for-profit group, a registered charity or a local business group endorsing the need for it. Step two, which is more important from our perspective, is that the local authority in the area must be involved by carrying out a simple assessment of the needs in the area and must confirm that transport demand is not capable of being met in other ways. That was brought in at the end of November. These are the key components. Costs are kept low so that cost is not an impediment. The Deputy also mentioned area knowledge but, because it is a local area of operation, there is no local area knowledge test. No area knowledge test is required because it is specific to a local area.