Mr. Hugh Creegan:

The Deputy also asked about taxis. There has been a big drop in the number of taxi driving licences from a peak of approximately 47,000 in 2008 to approximately 27,000 now. Not all 47,000 licences were active licences. At that point, it was very cheap and much easier to get taxi driving licences, and many people were holding them but not using them.

In the meantime, the fee has increased. This accounts for a large amount of the drop. Effectively, there was an oversupply in the industry for a long time which has now reduced significantly. These are the reasons the numbers have decreased from the peak of a few years ago.