Mr. Jim Waldron:

The process to get on the panel for school transport is very detailed. Bus Éireann falls down in the sense that if it made such transport more accessible, more taxi drivers would be able to help it out. The process is very onerous and there is a lot to it. Maybe if some sort of department was set up to assist drivers to enrol in it, that would be a positive. There are drivers who would like to do that type of work. Many drivers do it presently, but many more could do so.

On the issue of transferability the Deputy mentioned, and some of the other driver representatives have also mentioned this, as I said earlier, a driver with terminal illness, or even a stroke, has to keep his or her taxi active during all that time and has to be dead before somebody can take over the ownership of his or her licence. Why should people who are 80 years of age and have spent 20, 30, 40 or 50 years in the business, built up clientele quite well and have a ready-made business they want to hand over, maybe to a son or daughter, or sell to somebody for that matter because that driver has earned it, not be allowed do that? Such drivers are not allowed do that at present. The only way a licence can be taken over is through inheritance. It is unfair that a person who is unable to keep a licence active and wants to transfer his or her business to somebody else is not able to do so. It should be addressed.