Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At lunchtime, Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan and I accepted a petition from 11 carriage drivers who came down from Merrion Road. They gave it to us in order that we might hand it to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. Councillors Cieran Perry and Deirdre Heney accepted a petition from the same carriage drivers to hand to the CEO of Dublin City Council. The letter is entitled "Dublin City Council control of horse-drawn carriages by-laws 2011", and states:

Dear Minister Ross,

We, the undersigned, refer to the above Bye-laws and to Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's Parliamentary Question to you on 6 November 2018, wherein you were asked "your views as to whether the laws relating to horse-drawn vehicles and-or carriages are in need of review and strengthening".

It also states:

As you are aware, there is a "legal lacuna" with regards to the Bye-laws. It is our understanding that Dublin City Council had no basis to make bye-laws for the regulation of horse-drawn carriages and that primary legislation may need to be repealed or amended.

It further states:

We are professional carriage drivers and owners, operating under licence from Dublin City Council. However, as of September 2018 our Carriage Driver Licences and Carriage Licences have expired ...

In your response to the Dáil to Deputy O'Sullivan on 6 November 2018, you advised that you would "ensure that this matter is given due consideration". We would be obliged if you could resolve the legal situation as a matter of urgency.

We are calling on you ... to repeal the Victorian legislation to enable Dublin City Council to draft new, improved and enforceablebye-laws, that ... assess the driver, carriage, horse and harnessing, providing a safe and professional service to customers ...

A representative of the Carriage Owner/Drivers would be happy to meet with you to discuss further.

We look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

The Minister is familiar with this issue. He stated that neither he nor his Department were aware of this issue last November, but that is almost five months ago. He agreed to meet the stakeholders. These people are just asking for the Minister to sit down with them in order to discuss the issue.

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