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

The Taxi Regulation Act 2013 clearly gives the Minister the power to impose regulations around the activities of dispatch companies. Today, for the third time in two weeks, taxi drivers in Dublin are protesting. There is a widespread protest against this across the country by taxi drivers over the behaviour of Uber, a multimillion euro company, that is trying to undermine the livelihood of nearly 20,000 taxi drivers by introducing a fixed fare system. This will undermine the regulated fare structure and therefore the livelihoods of taxi drivers and ultimately the industry itself. In the long run, as is clear from Uber's behaviour elsewhere in the world, it will not benefit the customer. Once the company gets hold of a market, fares and charges go up and the livelihoods of taxi drivers get smashed. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for Transport to impose such regulations to prevent Uber destroying the industry and livelihoods of taxi drivers around this fixed fare system and enforce the taxi regulation and meter stuff?

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