Mr. Jim Waldron:

On the issue of subsidies, last year the NTA said that drivers could re-license their vehicles free of charge. That was appreciated. However, those who got had new EVs had to pay to renew their licences. It does not make sense.

The NTA is encouraging people to use EVs but then people have to pay for the licence if they did not put it on the existing vehicle. These are classic issues where intervention or subsidy could come in. There has just been a fare increase. It costs about €200 to get a meter programmed and resealed. We have all had to pay that. This has come on the back of the pandemic. There is no doubt that the NTA could subsidise the industry for these.

We are probably the only part of the public transport service that is a positive contributor to the NTA. Taxi drivers contribute millions of euro every year in licence fees. Maybe that is why we are not treated very well. Maybe if the NTA was giving us money, it would want to know where it was going and would want to do something about that.