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

I agree with the Deputy. Our taxi drivers provide a really important service right across the country in various circumstances. In my city, Dublin, they are part of our public transport system. They are an essential service for many people who perhaps cannot drive. They often provide a more economic way to travel. The problem we have had in the past year is that the business has disappeared. Tourism business and airport business have not been there. Social, nightlife and corporate business - everything has gone. It is starting to come back now, and with that we will start to see fares come back. That is the key to helping drivers get back on their feet.

As for the measures we have introduced, perhaps individual taxi drivers would say they deal with only a part of the cost, but we have looked at every single way possible to reduce some of those costs. I must give credit to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. Mechanisms were devised whereby that income disregard was possible because it encouraged people to keep on the road, even where volumes were very low and it did not make economic sense to try to make it work. How far the Minister can stretch the PUP system in having different rules for different sectors is something on which she, rightly, has to make the call. We are in the closing phases now, it is to be hoped, of managing this pandemic. Yes, it is important we keep some of the social supports in place into early next year. However, I expect, as we get fully vaccinated, that we will see the key thing we want, which is business back. In those circumstances, when people start to look at maybe getting a new car, I think they will then turn to this incredibly popular scheme. It will fundamentally change the whole taxi business and make it much cheaper to run a taxi because the lower fuel costs and the lower maintenance costs are the key. That, I hope, will kick in with the grants we are giving to help out the taxi industry.

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