Ms Wendy Thompson:

The Senator asked how many wheelchair accessible vehicles had been brought in over the last couple of years. In 2023, there were only 469 WAVs introduced, which was very disappointing for us. That was because of global supply and parts issues and was completely outside of our control. Prior to that, obviously, we had Covid as well. If I may, I will bring the Senator back to 2019, which was our last proper year. A total of 972 WAVs came on stream that year, out of a total of 1,289 new licences. So far this year, as of last Friday, we had 204 new WAV licences enter the fleet, so it is looking really good for this year in terms of getting back to 2019 levels or thereabouts. Parts are still really difficult to come by but there is less of a problem with the vehicles themselves. The difficulties with vehicles are caused by a combination of various geopolitical issues and Covid but also Brexit, which many people forget. The latter gives rise to non-conformity certificates and so on and we are working really hard with our counterparts to address that.

Over 21% of taxis are wheelchair accessible at the moment. Under the sustainable mobility programme, we have a commitment to increase that figure by 25% by 2025. In total, our grants have brought in about 4,000 WAVs since they were introduced in 2014. In 2023, we increased the level of grants which were on a scale from €7,000 to €17,500. When the grant was introduced initially, it covered the difference in cost between the purchase of a saloon vehicle and a wheelchair accessible one but the costs have changed greatly since then. As we know, costs have changed dramatically everywhere but particularly in this field, so the grant is now up to €17,500 for a petrol or diesel vehicle and up to €42,500 for an electric WAV. That is one of the incentives.

Training is also a hugely important for taking away the fear that many drivers have in this area. We make training available, but not just for WAV drivers. Since 1 January, online disability awareness training has been available to drivers across the board. This training is for every new driver who comes into the fleet. In that training we make sure drivers know about compliance, fines and so on. The maximum permissible age for a wheelchair accessible vehicle is 15 years, whereas for saloon vehicles it is ten years. That acts as an extra incentive. We also have a prohibition on new licences for saloon vehicles in the taxi or hackney field, except for those very specific local-area hackneys to address rural isolation, of which there are 25 in Ireland. I hope that answers the Senator's questions.