Mr. Gerard Macken:

Good morning, Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Gerard Macken, chairperson of the Taxi Alliance of Ireland and member of the National Transport Authority's taxi advisory committee. In my position I represent urban and rural taxi drivers and small public service vehicle licenceholders from Twenty-six Counties of Ireland. We are all aware of the issues facing rural communities and the feeling of isolation. This topic is regularly discussed at the taxi advisory committee meetings. In fact, I recently arranged a meeting between several rural taxi licenceholders, the NTA and the rural links bus service on this issue. At the meeting we discussed a subsidy for rural taxi drivers and the possibility of incorporating rural taxis and hackneys into the rural links service. This alone would facilitate the smaller groups of isolated people in an area when there is no need for a 14 or 18-seater bus. It is currently a prerequisite for admission to the rural link service to have a 14-seater bus. This immediately limits the number of applicants joining the system and makes it unviable for journeys with fewer than 14 people. We have therefore recommended that this condition be changed such that hackneys and taxi drivers become eligible to join. The NTA and the rural links service are in agreement with us on this.

The application process for rural hackneys is somewhat cumbersome as there are numerous steps in the process which would deter applicants from considering applying. We have suggested to the NTA that this application process be reviewed, and it has agreed to look into the process. We would support these changes to the rural hackney process, especially if managed by the NTA as it is the expert in rolling out initiatives such as these. This would ensure public safety is paramount and enforce rules to eliminate illegal operators across the rural communities. I thank the committee for listening.