Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I have great respect for the Deputies who are making the noise at the moment but telephones are going off in this Chamber regularly. Conversations such as this cause difficulty when people are trying to focus on representing the taxi sector.

I was surprised by how reasonable the demands of the taxi sector were. The taxi drivers know the State is in chaos at the moment. They know that massive difficulties are being experienced by society in general. Their asks are not unreasonable whatsoever. The central demand of taxi drivers is that they receive a financial support package from the Government. That is a completely reasonable response to a sector that has lost massive income. Taxi drivers have seen that income depleted significantly. Drivers have had to fork out massively on hand sanitizer and Perspex and Plexiglas dividers to ensure they can work in a safe manner, that their passengers are kept safe, and that they meet Government guidelines. However, they have had no support from the Government on that. If the Government continues to ignore taxi drivers, then I believe it will be responsible not just for strikes but for the loss of thousands of jobs in this State.

There is a fundamental issue here with regard to representation. I always believe that it should be ensured that any sector, whatever it is, has a voice and is listened to. Quite simply, however, the taxi advisory committee is not fit for purpose. It is not a representative body of taxi drivers' needs. One taxi driver who sat on the committee for two years said to me that literally every time their needs and voices were made on that particular forum they were silenced or outvoted. When grassroots organisations are silence or disempowered, the Minister of State can bet his bottom dollar he will have a crisis on his hands.

There needs to be a fit-for-purpose transport forum representative of unions and workers throughout the transport sector. We have seen bus, Luas and train drivers having to take to the streets and now it is the turn of the taxi drivers. Any Government worth its salt should have a radar open to see which sectors are in trouble and must be listened to and fixed before it comes to the breaking point of people taking to the streets.

I wish to mention one other issue. Yesterday's crisis in the Dáil is a phenomenal comparator to what is happening in the taxi sector. The taxi sector is basically told to get on with it. Drivers are told to sort it out themselves or take to the street to get their voices heard. They are told to just keep driving even though they may themselves be in difficulty, yet the cosseted political class yesterday literally closed everything down knowing well their incomes will not be touched in any way. A decision was made to close the Chamber down with no discussion between the political parties. The first I heard about it was when RTÉ's correspondent, Deputy Alan Kelly, made a tweet on the television yesterday. It is just not a logical situation that the Dáil can be so cosseted while, at the same time, 22,000 jobs in the taxi sector are under such pressure.

I ask the Government to make sure it gets out of its tunnel vision. We must reduce Covid-19. We must make sure we take precautions and that we are careful and cautious. However, people have to live with this particular illness as well and we must make sure the health service and different sectors can function. The fact that the taxi service is being left to swing in the wind in this time shows amazing tunnel vision by this Government.

I wish to raise several key questions before I finish my contribution. Why did the Government not recognise the particular vulnerability of the taxi industry to the pandemic and Covid-19 guidelines at the start and do more? Why has the Government shown such an aversion to helping struggling sectors directly impacted by Covid-19, the lockdown and the continued Government regulations such as the pub trade, the childcare sector and the taxi industry? Why does the Government consistently let the suffering go on to such a level that people are forced to strike outside Leinster House?

Caithfimid i bhfad níos fearr a dhéanamh don earnáil sin atá timpeall na tíre agus atá ag fulaingt mar gheall ar an ngalar seo agus mar gheall ar easpa suime an Rialtais seo. Ag bun an chairn sa tír seo tá na hearnálacha ina dtuilltear na hioncaim is lú. Níl an tionchar ag na hearnálacha sin agus ba cheart go mbeadh. Níl a fhios agam an bhfuil discrimination ná class taobh thiar den easpa fócais orthu, ach muna bhfuil an Rialtas sásta cabhrú leis an earnáil tacsaí, beidh sé ag cruthú i bhfad níos mó fadhbanna, fadhbanna sóisialta agus fadhbanna do theaghlaigh thart timpeall na tíre san áireamh. Beidh fadhb ollmhór iompair ann freisin mar caithfidh go mbeidh an córas seo ann don tír sa todhchaí.

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