Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State did not touch on the lobbying issue at all. There is much that needs to be done in that regard. My colleague, Deputy Mairéad Farrell, introduced the Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2020, which the Government kicked down the road. Among other matters, this is something to which the Government must revert.

I am reading significantly into the Minister of State's final comment that the Department and the NTA are both committed to current transport policy. In fairness, Mr. Hugh Creegan of the NTA has resisted changing it and the NTA's position has been clear. The question is, what is the position of the Government and, specifically, Fine Gael? There is a crisis in the taxi industry. We need to hear from the Government that it is committed to a regulated taxi industry and shares the concern about a deregulated or unregulated competing model. I believe the officials stated that they could not see how the two "could rationally co-exist". Please, will the Minister of State put on the record that we will not see the introduction of an Uber-style model in the taxi sector?

See this speech in context