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

I am happy to put on record that the taxi industry provides a vital public service. It will start coming back. It is slow at the moment, as it should be. We do not want a complete return immediately. We can all see this staged, step-by-step process of bringing life back and of people starting to travel again. People are nervous initially and that is understandable after a year and a half of restricted movements but the way we are doing it is working. It has broad public support. The number of Covid cases continues to come down. In that context, I expect the taxi industry to start to see a return. Some areas like international business travel are not going to come back immediately and it is going to take time but there are taxis taking people to and from the airport, for example. We do not want it to rocket up immediately but we expect, with the figures we are looking at for July, August, September and thereafter, that this is the start of a return to some sort of normality. The taxi industry will be one of the first to benefit from that.

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