Ms Anne Graham:

On the question of the age of vehicles, as the Deputy will know, in light of emergency Covid-19 restrictions, we made allowances for vehicles older than normally allowed under the regulations to operate. This was an attempt to protect and retain as many drivers and vehicles within the industry as possible. We still need to focus on maintaining the fleet operating in the market in good condition to ensure quality, however. That is something we continue to do. We do not believe that there are significant barriers to entering the small public service vehicle, SPSV, market in Ireland, particularly for the last two decades. There is no cap on the number of SPSV drivers or the number of licences issued. Any person or vehicle meeting the prescribed criteria, which we believe are reasonable, may be licensed to provide SPSV services.

In 2011, there was a widespread Government and stakeholder review of the taxi industry. That was at the height of the recession. Even then, the maximum age limits for vehicles were considered in depth and subject to full public consultation. In that same year, given the importance of the matter to the industry, we carried out a separate public consultation on vehicle standards with an emphasis on the question of maximum age limits, which was included in the overall review. The review found that the vehicle age limit for standard taxis and hackneys should be less than ten years and that the limit for wheelchair-accessible vehicles, WAVs, should be less than 15. This means that, when a standard taxi or hackney reaches its tenth birthday, it must be replaced with a younger vehicle. However, this replacement does not have to be brand new. Most vehicle licence holders tend to choose a replacement vehicle that is three to five years old. Data from before the pandemic show that 51% of SPSVs were to be five years old or younger at the end of 2021. This proportion has fallen to 35%.

With regard to international comparators, the age limits that apply to SPSVs in different jurisdictions vary but Ireland is on the end of the scale that allows for older vehicles. In the UK, local authorities usually apply either an age limit or an emissions standard. This age limit rarely exceeds ten years for saloon vehicles. Where emissions standards apply, diesel vehicles usually must meet or exceed the Euro 6 standard while petrol vehicles must meet or exceed the Euro 4 standard. In most regions in continental Europe, age limits lower than ten years apply. A limit of seven years is common in France and Belgium. We therefore think it is reasonable to ask the industry to return to a limit of ten years on the age of vehicles.

The taxi industry has always raised the issue of transferability. It is possible to identify a family member to whom a vehicle licence can be transferred on the death of the holder. We are not looking at any other transferability measures at this time.

On public transport, we have always wanted to extend public transport services, particularly in our cities, and to offer a 24-hour service, seven days a week, across key routes in the city. As part of the roll-out of BusConnects, we have put a number of such services in place. Even in advance of this roll-out, we had a number of 24-hour services in operation. These have proven to be very popular. We want to extend those as much as possible but whether we can make those increases and alleviate the problems customers and the people of Dublin and our other cities are experiencing at peak times, that is, the two hours on Friday and Saturday night when demand is at its highest, will come down to driver resource availability and funding.