Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I cannot accept these amendments.

The representation of SPSV operators on the Taxi Advisory Committee already provides the flexibility for representation from single and multiple licence holders. These amendments, in my view, do not improve on the current provision in the Bill, which is a restatement of the statute under the Taxi Regulation Act 2003. A broad balance is required on this committee. It is a fine committee, to which, as I stated in a previous contribution, I have added a person to represent those with disabilities. From time to time I have heard commentary from various different representative groups and from Deputy Ellis that not enough single licence holders are on this committee. In order to ensure that this issue is dealt with, there are a number of persons on the committee who are representatives of the taxi sector - as opposed to other groups such as the Competition Authority and the Road Safety Authority - and who are directly involved in the sector. They are Mr. Gerard Macken from the Taxi Alliance of Ireland, who is a single licence holder; Mr. John Ussher, who has been involved in the sector for a long time and is a single licence holder; Mr. Jerry Brennan from the National Irish Taxi Association, formerly the general secretary of SIPTU's taxi branch and a former single licence holder; Mr. Kevin Finn, a single licence holder from Kerry; and Mr. Derek McGovern, representing the Taxi Company Owners' Association, who is the only multiple licence holder. Those are the facts. At that rate, 20% of the representatives are multiple licence holders. In addition, there is Mr. Martin Plummer, a representative of the National Chauffeur Drive Association, which represents the limousine sector. Eighty per cent of those on the advisory committee who are there to represent the industry directly do not come from the multiple licence holder sector.

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