Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

For months and months, the taxi representative groups such as Tiománaí Tacsaí na hÉireann, the Taxi Alliance, the National Private Hire & Taxi Association, NPHTA, and the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation have been asking the Government to extend the arbitrary ten-year rule on vehicle licensing for taxi drivers to 15 years. A public consultation concluded on 12 October and the views of taxi drivers on this are beyond doubt. They want the extension from ten to 15 years for taxi drivers. Currently, they have to get rid of their vehicle after ten years. Virtually no electric vehicles are available and taxi drivers took a massive financial hit earlier during Covid. Six hundred drivers in January and February are going to have to leave the industry or get finance for a new vehicle they cannot really afford.

They are asking that the results of that public consultation on the Government decision to give them the five-year extension on the vehicle licensing rule be announced now. They have been hearing it is not going to be until 18 November. These 600 drivers need to know now whether the Government is going to extend the ten-year rule, which is a ridiculous rule anyway. If a car passes the national car test, NCT, it is fit for the road, so why on earth do these people have to jump over an extra hurdle at a time when we need taxi drivers?

See this speech in context