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

I thank the Minister of State for being here. The last question dealt with stakeholder engagement and this topic touches on it too. I refer to the representative groups who represent taxi drivers. The Minister of State will have met many of them in his constituency, as have I, Deputy Troy and many others, in regard to many issues.

One issue that has seemed to come to the fore, mostly because of the Government's decision, rightly, during Covid-19 to extend the lifetime of a taxi vehicle, is the anomaly whereby if a licence was granted before 2009 and the vehicle was associated with that licence from 2013, then that vehicle can last for 15 years. Yet we are now asking that cars older than ten years be taken off the road. We are taking newer cars off the roads while allowing those that were in place during implementation to remain on the road. Wheelchair-accessible taxis have up to 15 years. We also now have electric taxi vehicles coming on stream. Is the arbitrary limit of ten years the right way to approach this subject in future? Would a more standards-based approach be appropriate? The changes made have to be unwound to get back to the ten-year time period gradually and doing so may create further anomalies.

Regarding the supply of wheelchair-accessible taxis or electric vehicles, in both these cases we are battling the supply chain and trying to adapt a regulatory system that matches it. I feel, therefore, that what we should be looking at is the standard of the car and the experience for the passenger, rather than an arbitrary age for a vehicle. Specifically, though, I refer to the issue of the anomaly between those cars dating from before 2010 and newer cars and the challenge of unwinding the extension of ten years up to 2024 and beyond. Has the Minister of State examined this context? How does he propose to address it?

Much of this consultation is undertaken with the taxi advisory group, TAC. The real difficulty with this is that while it purports to be representative of the industry, everybody accepts the process does not capture all the voices in the industry. Members of several of the representative bodies will not serve on it because of their experience. While the NTA governs many of the issues I dealt with previously concerning the regulations, the TAC is dealt with by legislation in the Department. It is time for us to review how we consult with representative bodies in the sector.

In some ways, we are a regulatory body for independent private contractors and so at times it is appropriate to have an arm's-length approach. Equally, though, we know that taxis are a key part of the public transport network and it is also important that we help their operators address some of the challenges being faced. I am sure the Minister of State has got the same queries into his office time after time. The bureaucracy involved around making applications for licences and grant schemes, and how these schemes interact with the applications for licences, get in the way of taxi drivers applying for them. There is often a requirement that they are off the road for several weeks. In many cases, this situation prevents taxi drivers from making the decisions we want them to make, which is to decarbonise the fleet and to have more younger people come to the industry in order that it continues to be vibrant. I ask the Minister of State, therefore, to reflect on some of these issues in respect of how we consult with representative bodies.

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