Ms Anne Graham:

I can give an update. There is a lot of information in the media that is not quite correct. Many of the app providers, including Uber, are saying there is a 30% shortage of drivers. That is a 30% shortage in terms of who makes themselves available to use the app because there is a cost to the drivers about being associated with an app. They have to pay a 15% commission on that. Naturally, at times of high demand they tend to not associate with the app but take their bookings off the street.

From our perspective, the overall numbers are down on 2019, which was a high, but there is only a 7% decrease in driver's licences nationally compared to pre-Covid 2020 and 5.2% fewer taxi drivers available that are or have the potential to operate in the Dublin area. Naturally, the drivers can choose when they want to operate. We cannot contract them to operate at night time so our only means is to incentivise them through the fare changes that we introduced on 1 September. We will need to see whether that has an impact.