Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The €15 million in supports is designed for just those types of small individual taxi drivers and not for the big companies. It is a significant cash support, which increases further if drivers are using wheelchair-accessible vehicles. The uptake so far of 200 applications is a significant signal that this scheme is of real interest. It is a combination of that much-reduced cost of these vehicles and availing of other enterprise and liquidity supports, which will allow the financing of the purchase of vehicles. Taxi drivers are increasingly going to realise the savings that will arise from the fuel costs being a fifth of what they were previously and the maintenance costs being similarly a fraction of those previously. The maths of the return from the use of these vehicles means that I believe there will be a significant uptake by the end of the year by exactly those people of whom Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about. I refer to individual, self-employed taxi drivers who face real difficulty. While the PUP, the income disregard and the ability to earn in addition to the PUP will help those in that situation, I think that €15 million in grant payments, backed up with financing and liquidity, will be a way out of this crisis for those drivers.

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