Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

I call on the Deputy Leader, Senator Dan Boyle, to arrange a debate on the functions of the taxi regulator. Many rural towns, including my home, Listowel, do not have taxis but have hackney drivers. The hackney driver holds an old and honoured position. Unlike a taxi driver, the hackney cannot cruise for work. He does not have a rank. He operates from his home. He has to be commissioned before he undertakes a drive. In recent years at festive times, such as race meetings or Christmas, taxis from other towns and even from another county come into a town where the hackney drivers normally ply their trade to the disadvantage of the hackney drivers who cannot compete with them. The taxi regulator needs to address this anomaly.

I have been using taxis quite frequently here and notice more and more of the drivers are not familiar with the city. It is quite common when one gives directions to an address close to O'Connell Bridge, the heart of the city, that some of these drivers must switch on a satellite navigation system. I was in the ridiculous situation last week of trying steer a taxi driver home and found him driving up pedestrianised Grafton Street——