Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

That is an unfairness. Taxi drivers cannot return to work because there is little demand for taxis and also to do so they would need to install screens and the National Transport Authority, NTA, has not clarified what type of screen would pass muster in terms of insurance and so on. There has been no clear direction on this issue. Even though they have not been working throughout the pandemic, taxi drivers still face continued costs such as car loan repayments, maintenance charges and insurance costs. If they return to work, which they are under pressure to do because their payments are being cut, they will find that their income is insufficient to cover those costs. They will not be able to pay their insurance costs. Those taxi drivers who are lucky will be paying €2,000 or €3,000 for insurance. Those who are not so lucky will be paying €4,000, €5,000 or, in some cases, up to €10,000 for insurance. A taxi driver might also have to pay €600 per month on car loan repayments and maintenance costs of approximately €2,000 per annum and a taxi driver who returns to work will for the foreseeable future be paying about €7,000 per annum in fuel costs while driving the streets looking for customers but not able to find any.

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