Mr. Hugh Creegan:

On the query raised by, I believe, Deputy Harrington about the effect of this on existing operators, we recognise that is a real concern among operators in the industry and we have tried to get the balance right in the arrangement we struck. I would make a number of other points on this. This is not intended to be a perpetual licence, it is a licence for three years. If it extends beyond three years, a completely new assessment process must be carried out. We would be very much looking to the local authorities, in terms of the part of the analysis they have to do to support the application, to at least flag up the impacts upon the existing services. They may not pick them all up but we would expect them to pick up some of them. It is our intention and we have agreed with a taxi advisory committee, a statutory committee that has been set up, to keep the operation of these initial local area hackneys under review and if there is need for a recalibration or a slight change, we would certainly take that on board.

Deputy Ann Phelan asked who monitors these licences and if they can make a profit. To deal with the profit issue first, they most certainly can make a profit. Because it is a hackney service, the fares are agreed effectively between the passenger and the driver, they are not set by us. We anticipate and expect that the people provide the service for a profit reason. Monitoring these licences is the same as monitoring taxi and hackney licences. The key agency in the State with the most resources to monitor them is An Garda Síochána and it will have all the powers it needs to do that and, on top of that, we have a small number of enforcement officers who will also be keeping an eye on these licences.