Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the revocation, a licence will stand suspended for three months. Obviously, on reaching the end of the three-month period, the licence will be back in place. Insurance is a matter for the driver. I will not be getting involved in the intricacies of insurance. A driver's insurance is a matter for himself or herself. Everyone's circumstances will be different.

I stress to the Deputy that taxi drivers cannot have it both ways if they want me to clean up the industry, deal with the rogue drivers, as they call them, and deal with the part-timers, particularly those who are not bringing professionalism to the industry. They do not necessarily want the demerits. It is impossible to have it both ways. One must put in place a regime under which one can take licences off people or suspend them for reasonable reasons in order to clean up the industry. The Deputy must remember that I inherited the industry. I must clean it up within the provisions of the laws of the State and the European Union, including competition laws. I cannot just remove 20% of drivers; that is impossible. The processes in place are the legitimate ones to deal with the industry.

There is broad consensus in the House in favour of most of the provisions of the Bill. It is absolutely untrue to state the demerits will remove some drivers. That will not happen. I would not be bringing forward this legislation if I believed a national transport authority was going to act in an autocratic way to remove legitimate drivers. I would not tolerate or accept this. That is why I listened to the drivers on the issue of ranks. One must accept the bona fides. Ultimately, the National Transport Authority had to be changed around completely to focus on this matter. As a Minister of State, I have dedicated considerable time to cleaning up the industry. I am absolutely convinced that the demerit scheme should help the industry and that it is proportionate. I cannot say any more than this.

See this speech in context