Mr. Gerard Macken:

Dublin Airport initially sought the €440 upfront and that would have needed to be paid in the coming month. It has now given us a bit of leeway by pushing out the payment to September. Before that we would have had quarterly payments and forum meetings once per month in which we could put across our concerns. The previous landside standards manager, Mr. Anthony McGarry, dealt with us reasonably well in the taxi industry and there was always somebody at the end of the phone for any major incidents at Dublin Airport. That was until we saw the impact of Covid-19, when all interaction with the taxi representative groups was taken away. As I stated, I contacted Mr. Dalton Philips and there is a string of emails back and forth. He states that he started a workshop and that taxi drivers indicated they wanted to be contacted individually, which is totally not the case. The person who ran this, Margaret Cox, emphasised there should be more engagement with the taxi industry.

With regard to the NTA and the taxi advisory committee, the former Minister, Shane Ross, told our colleagues that he was not responsible for picking the taxi representatives. The NTA has no input into the taxi advisory committee at all. There is one representative from Tiománaí Tacsaí na hÉireann on it for the taxi industry. The remaining members are from dispatch operator companies, including Free Now, Lynk and the Galway representative for dispatch operators. The representative groups have very little input into this. There is very little input coming back from the taxi industry.

It beggars belief that there is a new taxi regulator. We sent an email to who we thought was the regulator only to find out, by accident, that there is a new one. That is the way we are being treated by the NTA. We are being told nothing and kept in the dark. We are being used as cannon fodder. There should have been major discussions. Ms Anne Graham has said there is great interaction, but that is within a committee. The taxi advisory committee has started a subcommittee to advise the main committee on Covid-19, which beggars belief.