Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Bill. I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, on its introduction. I had a number of concerns regarding the way in which the Bill was announced some time ago. Many taxi drivers and operators and those with family businesses were annoyed when they saw headlines about the level of bad behaviour and widespread illegal activity within the industry. Those headlines tarnished all taxi drivers. I caution the Minister of State with regard to headlines of this nature. While he wanted to announce both the review and the legislation that is now before us, he must accept that one cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. He should have been conscious of the number of taxi drivers who have been operating on a professional basis for many years and who are doing their best in what has become a difficult and overcrowded market.

I welcome the fact that the Government has completed the review and is now introducing this legislation. Both were well overdue. After the former Minister of State, Bobby Molloy, deregulated the market, it became obvious to all - taxi drivers, ordinary drivers, cyclists, pedestrians or whomever - that there was an oversupply of taxis in our cities and that the number of taxis in rural areas and small towns was insufficient. Come hell or high water, nothing could convince the then Minister to change things. I recall badgering the former Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, and pleading and fighting with him to introduce change. I did not realise quite how bad things were until I arrived in Dublin in 2007 following my election to Dáil Éireann. Of course, that was still in the boom times and there were far too many taxis in the city. Those who owned and operated them were literally eating each other for business and there was not sufficient room for their vehicles on the ranks. At some ranks, cars were double- and triple-parked and there was often hassle as a result. In light of these facts, there was a need to examine the position.

The Government announced a review of the industry in May 2011 in the wake of the "Prime Time Investigates" programme. I compliment and salute the programme's makers. We might often be critical of them, but it is a pity that it took their work to make the Government act. They used undercover footage.

The review was to examine all aspects of the industry, including enforcement and licensing. The taxi regulation review report, published last January, made 46 recommendations on driver licensing. I have a problem with consultants or reviewers devising dozens of recommendations on a single matter. They are justifying their own existence. Surely six or ten recommendations would be enough, rather than 46, which take up acres of space in large reports for which the consultants get paid a fortune. Nothing can be done at Government or local authority level any more without consultants being employed. It beggars belief. Consultancy has become a large industry and needs to be reined in. There are consultants for everything. Depending on who pays them, consultants can say anything. If one is opposed to or in favour of a proposal, one can hire consultants to provide the desired answer. It is a farcical industry. I am not condemning everyone involved or their qualifications, but we need to be careful. When they make ass-loads - pardon my language - of recommendations, one knows that their review was fleeting and scant, although their fee might not be so fleeting or scant. They will not have gone into the matter in depth or used a bottom-up approach.

The report proposed actions under six categories: compliance and enforcement, a category with which I do not have a major problem; consumer and industry assurance, which is desirable; driver licensing; vehicle licensing and standards; accessibility, which is important; and fleet management and rental controls, an area that needs to be examined. The majority of taxi drivers whom I meet, particularly in Dublin where I use taxis, are ordinary, honest-to-goodness, hard-working and decent people. Most are Irish, but many are from abroad. As in every industry, their name has become tarnished by cowboys, those who wish to flout the law and who bully and intimidate other taxi drivers.

In 2011 or 2012, an attempt was made to introduce amendments. This was crazy. I must put my car through the NCT. In fact, I did so for my wife's car last Monday. Our cars must meet a standard, and rightly so. Her car only failed because of the lights' focus and it will need to be retested after their focus has been adjusted. Taxi and hackney drivers put their cars through the same test in the same place, but those tests are done to a more rigorous standard. They must also have their measurements tested. In my area in County Tipperary, for example, they must visit a hotel to test their size, boot space, luggage area and so on. This is only right, but the law now requires any vehicle older than nine years to be put off the road. This makes a farce of the test. Thanks to the test, we know whether a taxi is kept in good order regardless of whether it is nine or 13 years old. The test is an annual one or, in some cases, a six-monthly one.

The NCT and the test that PSV operators must do determine whether a car is roadworthy. There is no in-between. This was not even okay in the boom time. I know taxi drivers who, because their children were in college and they had mortgages, could not afford to buy new cars, yet they were forced to do so even if their old cars passed the tests and were in perfect motoring order. This was a case of discrimination and over-regulation and was unfair. The situation has lightened, but I hope the Bill will clarify the matter. If a car passes both tests and is certified as being safe, that is fine. We all want road safety and want every passenger carrier to be safe, but forcing people to put perfectly good cars off the road was a nonsense. They had no market in which to sell their cars, which placed financial hardship on them.

Deputy O'Reilly and others referred to small family business. Perhaps a taxi driver's child went to college and studied for many career paths, but could not find employment and went into business with his or her parent. The same could happen with partners, spouses and so on. Family businesses have always been the country's backbone, be they in rural or urban areas. They know and trust their customers and vice versa. It has become too cumbersome to transfer a licence by telephone every time it needs to be done. My business has a fleet policy of notification after the event. If a parent is at home in bed after driving all night, his or her child should be allowed to pick up a fare without going through unnecessary red tape. We must examine this issue. The Taxi Regulation Act 2003 tried to deal with some of these issues, but it failed.

The majority of taxi drivers have their affairs in order, their vehicles are safe and they follow good practices. Even before the boom, work was scarce because of their numbers. Deregulation was necessary, but there comes a point at which it should be monitored. One cannot just pull the shutter and let it off. If necessary, we must ensure there is some regulation. Oversupply kills everyone. I have seen arguments at taxi ranks at 5.30 p.m. because people tried to cut in ahead of others. There is too little business for too many taxis. One night, I walked from the front gates of Leinster House past St. Stephen's Green to Leeson Bridge. I counted 300 taxis waiting for fares. Many drivers rolled down their windows and asked whether I wanted a lift. I chose to walk. This oversupply is unfair.

Regulations were introduced for taxis. I sometimes pass a taxi rank at Heuston Station when I enter Dublin that way. Although the trains arrive frequently, there are only seven taxi spaces. The rank is swollen. When a train arrives, all of the taxis are gone within 15 minutes. Drivers are receiving fixed penalty fines. This is unfair. They are needed for when trains arrive, but trains can often be delayed and the taxis are parked outside the rank through no fault of their own. There could be as many as 30 or 40 of them. In some cases, there might be only one with its wheel over the line, yet it will still get a ticket. The ranks must be enlarged. Space is tight in Dublin, but we must allow for more taxis if we are to meet demand. Taxis would not go to Heuston Station unless there were train passengers. I am representing the many people who have told me that the rank might only move for a few minutes before it stops until the next train arrives. Heuston Station is busy and the rank can move quickly. The Garda should be cognisant of this fact and not nitpick. Gardaí are doing their job and say that this is not their problem, but the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport must consider this matter and make adequate space available for parking, given the volume of people who are picked up by taxis. This is an important issue, and not just at Heuston Station, but I am not as familiar with other areas. I have seen the long queues at Heuston Station when I drive into Dublin on Tuesday mornings. If I drove past ten minutes later, the queues could be gone.

Taxi drivers are working longer hours than ever before to make a living. Incomes have dropped across the board. In recognition of these facts, we must take immediate steps to alleviate the problem. Every sector in the economy is suffering because of the recession. Taxi drivers are no different, as people do not have enough disposable income to hire them.

The introduction of a cap on numbers would make the taxi industry fairer, safer and better equipped to deal with the trade needs of taxi drivers and the public. That must be done post haste. That was required when deregulation was introduced. It is like opening the gate into a field of cattle or sheep and letting them out. One must follow them. One must shepherd them and direct them in the way they are going. In this case, the then Minister, Mr. Noel Dempsey, just opened the shutters and let them off to hell or to Connacht. That was patent nonsense, but the former Minister was so arrogant he would not listen to anybody. He would not listen to the industry, his fellow Deputies or anybody else at the time. One could not turn that man. He was like a horny ewe without a gap. You could not turn her back. A horny ewe is a lamb. The Minister of State, Deputy McGinley, understands. Tuigeann sé é sin, but some people in the audience might not. You could not put her back with three sheepdogs and a stick. The Minister was the same. Thankfully, he is no longer able to introduce such measures. He did much damage to the country, as did his party. It is a case of good riddance to bad rubbish.

I want a taxi industry that is affordable, accessible and provides a high-quality service to the public. I accept there has been a significant increase in the number of taxis. The market is over-subscribed, which is causing huge difficulties. The Bill is required, but not the knee-jerk reaction the Minister took when he announced that all taxi drivers are villains and rogues. The nine-year rule for the replacement of taxis was extended after 31 July 2012 - I do not know for how long. Again, it was patent nonsense. It was wrong and unjust. If the vehicles being used as taxis had the proper licensing, the cars had NCTs and the requirements of taxis, for example, for luggage space, were complied with, then it was total intimidation and bullying by the State to force taxi drivers to replace their taxis. It is another element of State terrorism. I have mentioned the phenomenon previously in connection with this and the previous Government and the permanent government. I refer to the heavy hand of the law and regulation. People were frozen out of business even though they had paid for their cars, were looking after their family and paying their rates and taxes. Even though everything was in order, they were forced to change their cars. I doubt the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, SIMI, encouraged that. I have been in taxis abroad that have 300,000 km to 500,000 km on the clock and they are still operating well as taxis. Some cars can withstand such mileage.

The Indecon report made recommendations for rural areas. The Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, is from a rural constituency, so he should be well aware of the issue. I have had spats with him about rural transport and comments he made about reorganising it. I take the opportunity to thank him for visiting the Ring a Link headquarters in Kilkenny. It is a rural transport project with which I have been proudly associated since its inception. I was one of the organisers of the project in south Tipperary where I still chair the working group. It is a three-county rural transport project, and it is one of the most successful in the country. We came together and pooled our resources. We are serving people in rural areas where there are no hackneys or taxis. The asses and carts are gone, as are the traps. People do not have cars.

Anti-rural legislation has been introduced in the House, one Bill after another. I refer to drink driving legislation and road safety legislation, among others. The Government is over-zealous in its implementation of legislation and it is killing off rural Ireland. Through Ring a Link we brought back some bit of life and hope to those people who were abandoned. Bus Éireann did not want to know about them, nor CIE before it. I and others fought for years to get a bus stop in New Inn between Cashel and Tipperary. We eventually got it. Two years later, New Inn was bypassed and they forgot about New Inn and the bus stop. It was not profitable any longer. The bus travelled on the motorway. That was not much of a bus service. It is no wonder the company is millions in debt. I hope the dispute has been settled today. I would be delighted if that were the case. The Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, has returned to the Chamber. I complimented him on visiting the Ring a Link headquarters and seeing at first hand how it operates and the state-of-the-art booking system. I hope he got a good understanding of what happens there. I also hope he can see a future for such projects as Ring a Link, which comprises a three-county project.

I thank the Minister of State for his visit and being understanding. He can make up his own mind on it. I do not wish to impose my view on him. We have had our spats and I hope he has a better understanding of the system now. I have a better idea of his perspective also. Hackneys must be examined for rural areas. Law after law has been introduced. People are locked in their homes and they cannot get out from when they go to Sunday mass until the next Sunday because they are afraid to drive due to the various regulations and rules. I do not support drink driving but people in local areas should be allowed to go out to play a game of cards, go to the shop, have a drink, get the pension, have their hair done and drive home.

People live in rural isolation with their doors locked, and now there is no one to protect them. The Garda does not have the cars or resources and the garda stations are closed. People are filled with fear. They are abandoned now. No one is on the roads in rural areas only vagabonds, thugs and thieves. They are beating up people, robbing houses and threatening people. When members of my local community rang the Garda station during the week because a strange van was seen in the area, they were told after three or four telephone calls that there was no car to send out. A few years ago there were cars everywhere to stop people at checkpoints. They frightened the life out of the people who paid their taxes and built up the country.

Vintners had a meeting in Louth during the week. Publicans are disappearing off the face of the earth. In fairness to them, they always looked after their customers. The pub might be the only place to go in many villages.

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