Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes. It is important to have the opportunity to air the issues. It is very clear from the contributions we have heard that there are fundamental problems with the voice of taxi drivers being heard in the industry and being central to the development of the industry. That is something that has been repeated and it will be central to a lot of what we raise with the NTA and on which we need to see reform in the time ahead. I encourage the witnesses to develop their own thinking and proposals on what an alternative to the TAC would look like. In the context of a number of comments, a long-standing proposal is included in the programme for Government for a public transport forum. Is that something that the witnesses would like to see and what might that look like?

The bigger issue I want to raise relates to the viability of the sector. I see an incredible contradiction within the system relating to the EV grants. On the one hand, the Government is saying that it wants a green transition, it wants the taxi industry to go green and it is putting €15 million per year into this. Problems have been identified with that, as outlined by the witnesses. At the same time, there will be a cliff edge in 2023 whereby thousands of vehicles are going to be hit by the nine-year rule and, as a consequence, individual drivers will be left to decide whether to get another petrol or diesel vehicle to tide them over in the meantime or to exit the industry all together. That scenario has been spelled out to the NTA and the Minister by myself and others. We have outlined that scenario to them and what they say in response is, "Don't panic". They say they are looking at it, a fare increase was introduced recently, a recruitment campaign is ongoing and that will solve the problem. That is what the NTA will say to us again next week and I want to ask our guests, as industry representatives, what they say to that.