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

I absolutely agree. We have to provide good quality public transport and transport services for all our people. I deeply regret that the local hackney pilot scheme was not successful. The Deputy is correct about that. The uptake was far lower than we wanted. We will review that and come back with further iterations. When something does not work, we can at least learn why it did not. Although the review is ongoing and I do not want to pre-empt it, I get the sense that the conditions were probably too restrictive as regards ability to pick up other passengers and so on. Those conditions were imposed out of a desire not to undermine the business case for other taxi drivers in rural areas. We will make adjustments and try again. In the meantime, we have introduced an incredible increase in rural public transport services through the Connecting Ireland system. It is not as if this is the only solution. However, we do need a better taxi service in rural areas. We absolutely accept that and will do everything we can to improve it. As to how to do that, I believe it is appropriate for the Government to set policy and provide funding but also to work with agencies like the NTA. I find the NTA works very well. The system is working for us in this iterative way. We try things and, if they do not work, we come back and try again.

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