Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My apologies for being late. I was at another meeting. I was glad to see when I was coming in that Mr. Murphy was flying the flag for rural Ireland. I will return to an issue I have raised here previously. It looks like I will continue to raise it. I have now become something of a lightning conductor for people who have clear evidence that the small public service vehicles, SPSV, knowledge test is away with the fairies. It is the best example of a test that is designed for people to fail. If the leaving certificate curriculum was like the current SPSV knowledge test, there would be national uproar. I know of somebody who was asked a question in the knowledge test that related to which street a pub was located on. The pub in question closed down six years ago and there is no pub of that name in the city of Limerick. I have asked about this issue here previously and it seems, as a previous occupant of this House said, to be like playing handball against a haystack. The ball never comes back.

I genuinely believe that the knowledge test for SPSVs - people trying to drive hackneys in limited rural areas - is an absolute farce. It is designed for people to fail. I will not be convinced otherwise until such time as the knowledge test reflects the area in which the person operates. Again, I will use the example of the town of Abbeyfeale. If people are looking to get a hackney licence anywhere between the villages of Glin through Athea and down into Abbeyfeale, they will not be asked anything about Knocknagoshel, Duagh, Lixnaw or anywhere in the Listowel area but they will be asked about places 50 or 60 miles way from them in Doon, Oola and Kilbeheny, which is practically beside Mitchelstown - areas where they will never take up a fare. The answer I am constantly being given is that they can apply for the rural hackney licence, which is a very limited licence that is not the same thing. It is not a hackney licence as we would know it.

Why is there an absolute aversion to testing people on the area they are going to serve rather than an area we know they will not serve? I know of no hackney drivers in the west Limerick area being called into Limerick city to collect fares and drop people off. If the NTA could show me an example of a hackney driver from Abbeyfeale, Mountcollins or Newcastle West who is receiving calls from Limerick city to drop people off there, I would accept the validity of knowing which direction the traffic in Roches Street runs. However, until such time as someone can actually show me that this system is fit for purpose, I think it is absolutely ludicrous. God help people down in Goleen, Schull or Allihies who are trying to pass the Cork knowledge test because they will be asked about places in Fermoy, Mitchelstown or Kilworth. People are half way to Dublin when they are in Fermoy on the way from Goleen but they are expected to have knowledge about it. It is absolutely ludicrous. When are we going to arrive at a situation where a person is tested on the functional area rather than on this notional area of a county? We have seen in the Local Government Reform Act 2014 how notional areas of counties can disappear. South Tipperary has disappeared so now a person in Newcastle in south Tipperary on the Waterford border is expected to know about places up near Birr, Riverstown and Borrisokane. These places are over 100 miles away. What are we going to do about it?

With the greatest respect, I do not think that the halfway house rural hackney licence is the solution because it is a limiting licence. It is basically saying to people that we know there is a problem, we know there are not enough hackneys in the area and we know that we are putting a knowledge test in front of them that they will never be able to pass so rather than change the knowledge test and examine the person on an area they will cover, we will go to a halfway house. I do not think that is acceptable.