Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The news that the Government will extend that until the end of 2022 is very welcome. I know there are many who would wish it would go further, but at this time the Minister's commitment in the House to that will be very welcome news to those people who are facing that cliff edge. I understand this may have to go through public consultation with the NTA and, obviously, I would encourage us to accelerate that process as much as possible. I thank the Minister for the engagement he has had with me and with the representative bodies. While the NTA is the regulatory body and the Taxi Advisory Committee represents both taxi passengers and the taxi industry, the representative bodies are agents of change for us to deliver projects such as the decarbonisation of the fleet. We do that by building up credibility with them, engaging with them and ensuring they know there is a body on their side to protect them as a key part of the public transport network.

I accept what the Minister says about the Minister for Social Protection answering my questions. I have raised this directly with her and I will follow that up. I welcome that he says there will be change in this area, but at present it is proposed that those drivers who were on the €350 PUP rate will continue to work on a taxi rank and receive their PUP until February next year, while those taxi drivers on €203 will not. We will therefore have two different taxi drivers on the same rank, one receiving the PUP and the other not receiving it. That is an anomaly. I think the Minister recognises it is an anomaly. I imagine the Taoiseach recognises it is an anomaly. We should iron it out and again get back to the industry, communicate what we want to do and build up a relationship with them, both at the NTA and at Government level. I promise the Minister that these are ordinary, decent taxi drivers who want to deliver this public service, and they want Government support for it.

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