Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge, as does the Government, that the taxi industry has been severely damaged by the pandemic. Taxi drivers have incurred enormous economic losses, much more so than the average person. It would be remiss of us not to acknowledge that the Government has done a lot to help already. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced a €15 million package last year. Licence fees have been waived. Like other self-employed people, taxi drivers can claim the pandemic unemployment payment and still work and still charge fares, up to a certain limit. That was a major concession. It is important that taxi drivers can operate their vehicles and still claim the PUP. There is a lump sum for those who are able to come off the PUP. We are aware of the difficulties taxi drivers face. The Minister for Transport will be engaging with them and seeing if there are other things that we can do. The best thing we can do is to get them working again.

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