Mr. David McGuinness:

I also thank the Chairman and members for the opportunity to address the committee today on issues affecting the taxi sector.

At the outset of the pandemic, we requested a five-year extension of the vehicle age for all vehicles to include new vehicles with loans attached and older vehicles due to exit the sector. Currently we have an electric vehicle, EV, grant. However, stock has become a real issue. Drivers with older vehicles cannot source an electric vehicle. If the operator changes vehicle in the short term due to end of vehicle life, the vehicle purchased may not meet the criteria for the EV grant. We have requested a common-sense approach, leaving operators in existing vehicles until EVs become available. We have written to the Minister for Transport with this request and so far received no reply.

It is our view the sector needs to be incorporated into the public transport system. Taxis are the only 365-days-per-year, 24-hour, door-to-door transport service. This would lead to inclusion at large-scale events, resulting in temporary taxi stands and set-down and drop-off facilities. Currently large venues throughout Dublin have no taxi stands or set-down or drop-off areas resulting in operators not offering their services at the venues. Difficulties with parking and the threat of being fined are some of the reasons operators quoted. Dublin City Council's lack of engagement with the taxi sector at major public events needs to be addressed.

Tiománaí Tacsaí na hÉireann resigned its seat on the taxi advisory committee, TAC, during the early months of the pandemic. It is our view the sector should be in a negotiation position as opposed to an advisory position with the Department of Transport. We requested changes to the committee subsequent to our resignation but all were refused. Many of the proposals we submitted to the Department and the TAC were not adopted. The TAC needs to be disbanded for a national transport forum that allows all bodies that provide public transport to input positively to the transport system of Ireland.

Currently licences are non-transferable except on the death of the licence holder. Up until this decision, a taxi operator saw his or her licence as a business with the opportunity to build a small business to be shared or passed on to a suitable family member and, therefore, bringing younger generations into the sector. As this is no longer possible until after death, many drivers see the licence as a way of earning a weekly wage and do not see it as a small-business opportunity.