Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is plenty of time for amendments. I have raised this matter countless times and the Minister of State knows that. He should not be trying to pass the buck.

All legislation moved through this House should honour the international agreements signed by the State. Would the Minister of State argue that it was a matter for Deputy Lucinda Creighton if a Bill he produced was not in accordance with an EU treaty? In the North, a similar attempt was made to bar political prisoners from driving taxis but Daniel McComb took a case against this and won. The court ruled that the State had no right to discriminate in this manner. Given the Irish constitutional protection for the right to make a living, I have no doubt a similar case would be successful in this State should this section of the Bill remain. I also have no doubt such a case will be brought. I call on the Minister of State, if he wants to avoid this, to look again at the approach taken in the Bill and to exclude those covered by the Good Friday Agreement. My party could not support any Bill that puts up barriers to former political prisoners.

I welcome the Minister of State's current position on the transferability of licences. Transferability is very important and is something the industry has sought. I look forward to dealing with the relevant amendments to the Bill in this regard. I also look forward to analysing what the company transfer entails, because the issue of an uneven playing field is also important in the industry. I will study the proposed changes. I am also interested in the provisions concerning rural hackney licences, dealt with in section 46 of the review group's report. I ask the Minister of State to outline the plan in this regard. One could argue that we are creating a three-tier taxi system, with taxi licences, hackney licences and rural hackney licences. It appears that the rules relating to rural hackney licences are far less stringent and costly than those relating to the other two licence types. I am not dismissing the provisions out of hand, but I would like to hear more from the Minister of State on this. I am particularly keen to find out what it will mean for rural Ireland because, as we know, rural pubs, which are so important socially to rural communities, are in deep trouble.

I have said for a long time that there is a need for a vetting Bill specifically for the taxi industry. In Spain, for instance, only citizens are allowed to drive taxis, and several other European countries require a person to be resident for at least five years before he or she can drive a taxi. I am not saying that is what we should do, but we must examine this issue. If it is fair that a person from this country is vetted, then it is fair that everyone be vetted. Some have argued that the vetting process is unfair because it is not applied to everyone across the board. I ask the Minister of State to consider this issue.

Other industries, including the security industry, have it and it is only fair that the taxi industry should ask for it.

The Minister of State referred to spaces and I am pleased that he has decided to row back on the demerits. The original proposal would have caused major problems because of the lack of spaces in all the major cities. We know there are problems on O'Connell Street. The taxi rank there will go and there will be more chaos wherever it goes. It would have been a disaster to penalise someone for being in a queue. That has caused problems for people.

I expect to table several amendments. I appeal to the Minister of State in respect of several issues. One issue I wish to raise relates to former political prisoners. There are many people and families involved - I do not believe the Minister of State fully understands the number involved - who are worried sick because of how this could impact on them. I believe that needs to be addressed.

The industry needs to be regulated. Many good ideas and good submissions have been put forward by the review group. I have problems with many of them but a great amount of has been work done and the work of the group represented a big step forward. We should not put people out of the industry by placing huge costs on them and extra burdens that are not necessary.

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