Results 3,561-3,580 of 6,541 for speaker:Ruairí Ó Murchú
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: I thank the witnesses. This meeting has been comprehensive, and they have laid the issues out cleanly. Their point on taxi drivers being good salespeople for vehicles is a definite. I do not have an EV. I bought a Skoda Octavia on the basis of a recommendation by a taxi driver friend of mine who always drives one. I bought it after he told me he saw it for sale. My NCT expiry date was...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: One can address problems when they arise and I have seen it myself.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is a straight ask. Again, some of this may also be the fact that some of these problems may well have been dealt with if the Taxi Advisory Committee was fit for purpose.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: The representatives have stated clearly how difficult it is for a new entrant coming in with everything from insurance to the rentals and whatever. A serious concern at the minute would be safety. A lot of physical taxi ranks have closed on the basis that people are afraid of the interactions after 12 midnight.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: And worse these days.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: I get that. It was brought up earlier, and it has been brought up with me. Sometimes, because everyone is operating their own business, some people may say that we do not have enough taxi drivers that can carry people with disabilities or with mobility issues. I get that this can be a huge outlay of money for an individual taxi driver.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: There is the previous point also that we want to make sure that it actually gets dealt with.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: Yes, it is serious assault.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: Some people say that it is incredibly difficult in small towns, or even not so small towns, to get a taxi that can take a person if he or she is a wheelchair user. I accept that for an individual taxi driver it can be a big outlay of money to get the proper vehicle. Could I get the witnesses' views straight on that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: Right. That point would need to be checked.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: Is that a requirement to get into the DAA?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: With unintended consequences.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: We have a whole pile of unintended consequences. It seems there has been a lack of planning. We will all set up systems that can be imperfect but there does not seem to be any means of actually chasing and checking in this regard. I have a last point to make. Based on the witnesses' accents this might not be an issue that has ever come up but it is an issue I have had in Dundalk where...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: That is accepted, but in some cases that is not the problem. It is just whether-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: To be clear, lots of them will have gone through the rigmarole and would have come up with an address and will have come up with the southern licence and all of that. Once again, it is a bit of an Irish solution. I was wondering if any of the witnesses had ever come across the issue. It is something I will be putting to the NTA.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: I was only checking whether the matter had ever come across the witnesses' radar.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: No. That is not what I am asking. On some levels it is an unfair question but-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: I will tell the witnesses what I am talking about. I like introducing a level of chaos. I am talking about Dundalk for example. Obviously there is a huge number of people in south Down and south Armagh who work in Dundalk. A number of people have approached me who live in the North, have Northern Ireland licences-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: It is a Northern Ireland driver's licence. They are looking to do the PSV for the South to operate a car in Dundalk, being facilitated by someone who-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Impacting the Taxi Industry: Discussion (14 Sep 2022)
Ruairí Ó Murchú: The difficulty is that the NTA will not allow them to sit the test but will not give me a straight answer. The witnesses have referred to bad communication or lack of communication with the NTA. I have had plenty of that over the summer in relation to this.