Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

I thank Deputy Kelly for raising this issue. I am from the most beautiful place in Galway. It is a very rural area called Belclare. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Connolly, is laughing at me. It is beautiful but there is scarcely a taxi or hackney there either. I appreciate the issue raised by Deputy Kelly and I thank him for raising it. I will read some of the reply and then I will speak to Deputy Kelly about it.

Neither the Minister for Transport nor his Department are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport, including with regard to small public service vehicles. The National Transport Authority is the independent regulator for licensing and enforcement for the SPSV industry under the consolidated taxi regulations. That being said, I want to clarify that the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, has taken over the brief for rural transport. He has visited many rural areas over the past few months. He recognises the crucial role played by local taxi and hackney services in combatting loneliness and isolation in rural areas, and their importance in enhancing tourism and hospitality offerings in local rural areas.

Taxis, hackneys and local area hackneys have an important role to play in meeting travel demand. In recognition of this, the programme for Government commits to improving local taxi service provision. The NTA currently issues local area hackney licences where applicants can show there is a need for this part-time service and that it will not displace or replace current SPSV providers. These special licences are limited to a local area of operation, typically where an applicant resides, and applicants are not required to meet a few of the standard licence application requirements. For example, a resident of the area in respect of which the local area hackney licence is sought is not required to undertake the industry knowledge or area knowledge tests, and the licensing fees are significantly lower for the local area licence, at €50 per vehicle and €20 per driver. A condition of the local area licence is that only passengers within a designated range of 10 km can be picked up, as Deputy Kelly said, and a new fare may not be picked up at a drop-off point outside of that area.

As Deputy Kelly stated, two licences are required. There is a licence for the vehicle, which is a three-year licence. There is also a licence to drive a local area hackney, which is obtainable from An Garda Síochána. This is not required if a person already holds a valid licence to drive SPSVs. As of 25 April, there are 22 licensed local area hackney vehicles and 19 licensed local area hackney drivers.

The NTA launched and administered two local area hackney schemes in recent years, one in 2019 and another in 2023, to support and promote it. The take-up of the 2019 pilot was very disappointing with only two of the 15 locations taking it up. The subsequent impact of Covid on the industry in 2020 impacted pilot operations. A further pilot was undertaken in 2023. This was launched in January 2023 in 21 locations and provided a grant of €6,000. Notwithstanding significant work by the NTA, just two operators were licensed.

The issue of rural transport services is an ongoing focus for the Department. It is something that I, the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, have already discussed. We must look at the issue in depth to see how we can have a system whereby people will be attracted to take up this local area hackney service. Deputy Kelly mentioned some ideas. I am willing to engage with him further in this regard because, at the end of the day, we want to achieve a result rather than talking in five years' time about how it is still failing.

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