Ms Maev Nic Lochlainn:

The regulator will have powers. The regulator will ensure that vehicle inspection occurs. As I understand it, at the moment the NTA does not have expertise in-house. However, such expertise certainly exists, as far as I understand, in Ireland and certainly in the EU. There are people who can inspect vehicles, establish the size of the motor and whether a vehicle is motorised or non-motorised. I do not envisage any difficulty with the NTA even though it does not have those skills in–house at present. These issues were discussed with the NTA before developing the general scheme.

A question was raised about insurance. Several Deputies asked whether we had engaged directly with the insurance industry. We have not engaged directly with the insurance industry. As I have pointed out, the vehicles that will be licensed under this general scheme will not be motorised vehicles. Therefore, they will not be subject to the normal motor insurance requirements. It is expected in our conversation that the insurance requirements relating to these vehicles may well be public liability insurance requirements. However, that is a step further down the road. We are giving powers to the NTA to ensure that insurance is in place. I imagine that in future when it becomes clear that this sector will be regulated, it will be inspected carefully.

At the moment, as Deputies have indicated, there are concerns that the sector is unregulated and it is not clear what kind of standards or vehicles are there but once we have this regime in place it will be quite clear that only vehicles that are roadworthy will be licensed. The drivers will be Garda vetted and will be persons of good repute so we will be looking at an entirely different industry.

While I am aware that in recent days the NTA has issued reports on the costs of entry into the taxi industry, it is also the case that these are slower vehicles and that cyclists do not face the same kind of premiums and these vehicles are like bicycles. I can only say that we expect that the industry will be much more regulated, that standards will be much higher, that they will be carefully enforced and that the insurance industry will take all of that into cognisance when it begins to set premiums.