Mr. Gerry Murphy:

I would hate Deputy O'Donovan to get the idea that we are not listening to what he is saying because he has raised valid points. The difficulty lies in trying to find the answer and deal with his concerns. I previously mentioned that we inherited a third party IT provider which did the knowledge test, which made it very difficult for us to change the questions without huge costs to the State. We have changed that. We have built our IT system and are reviewing the bank of questions.

I agree with the Deputy that the rural hackney licence is not a solution. It does not enter into the debate at all and should not, therefore, be seen as an answer to anything like that.