Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter regarding the ongoing challenges to the taxi industry posed by illegal operators, which I will answer on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. The regulation of the SPSV industry, including enforcement and compliance in the SPSV sector, is a matter for the independent transport regulator, the NTA, under the provisions of the Taxi Regulation Acts, 2013 and 2016. The Minister for Transport has no role in the day-to day operations of the small public service vehicles sector. The NTA, as regulator, sets the standards and requirements for the SPSV sector which include rules about vehicle standards, suitability of drivers, and insurance requirements. It also enforces legislation related to SPSVs sector which includes taxis, hackneys and limousines. Taxis and taxi drivers must be fully licensed. The NTA has 20 compliance officers, spread across the country working for the benefit of the industry and the travelling public, and who are empowered to investigate complaints. Separately, all members of An Garda Síochána are empowered to investigate offences under the legislation. The NTA does not have statistics on the numbers of unlicensed SPSV operators encountered and dealt with by Gardaí. To successfully detect and prosecute those operating without any SPSV licences, Garda assistance is required. There is a lot of co-ordination between the two State organisations. Any communications received by the Minister or by his Department regarding illegal operators in the taxi industry are sent to the NTA for investigation by its enforcement team. In 2022, NTA compliance officers recorded more than 200,000 checks of SPSVs where each officer has a handheld, roadside app to check vehicles. The NTA also recorded more than 12,400 audits of SPSVs, where more detailed inspections were carried out. NTA compliance activity resulted in 655 fixed payment notices being issued in 2022 and 146 prosecutions at the District Court.

I understand that in most instances, illegal operators use vehicles that are not displaying any SPSV identification and offer their illegal services through social media or directly through a venue within a city, town or village. These are not taxi services, but are prebooked, private hire services. With any allegation of an unlicensed SPSV service, information is received, assessed in terms of evidence and acted upon wherever possible by NTA compliance officers or members of An Garda Síochána.

For a successful prosecution, there must be evidence that the individual is operating for hire or reward and, therefore, evidence of payment must be presented to the court. The NTA, with the assistance of An Garda Síochána, has undertaken numerous covert operations to detect and apprehend offenders. This has included the detection of offenders operating from outside the jurisdiction through social media, and also offenders offering services solely in foreign languages. The operations to detect and apprehend the offenders are covert, often complex and may take some time to conclude. The evidential threshold for prosecuting these cases is, as it is with all criminal prosecutions, high. All reports of illegal operators are investigated but not all reveal that offences are being committed. In addition to undertaking covert activity, if evidence is provided by those reporting the allegation, including evidence that the service is being provided for hire or reward, the matter will be prosecuted based upon the evidence provided by the person reporting it.

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