Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the opportunity to discuss the Bill which is important legislation. Many of the points I had hoped to make have been covered already, especially the positive aspects of the legislation, and therefore I will not labour on them too much.

We all know that for many people the taxi industry is in crisis and that across the State taxi drivers and their families increasingly are facing a bleak future. The over-supply of licences per application of existing regulations and the dramatic loss of trade have pushed hundreds of taxi drivers out of business and thousands more into real financial difficulty.

Senator O'Sullivan said that he did not want to leave himself open to a sucker punch but as mentioned earlier, we cannot deny that the previous Administration left the industry in bad shape and that many of the problems facing the taxi industry arose under those Administrations. This Government has not been quick enough to act but I welcome this legislation. The Minister has brought other legislation to the House and therefore I welcome that it is forthcoming.

While elements of the Bill are clearly positive - other Members have mentioned them and I will not labour them - the full extent of the crisis in the industry or the weaknesses in the existing regulatory regime have been adequately dealt with. That in part comes back to the lack of a real engagement with the industry as a whole, whether it be with the representative bodies or individual drivers. As Senators mentioned earlier, many individual drivers want to make a living. They may not be part of the representative groups but they have a good deal of input to make. There is greater scope for dialogue with them on this issue.

In terms of the feedback I have been getting from some of those representatives and taxi drivers, they expressed some dissatisfaction with the Bill we are debating today.

I welcome many aspects of the Bill but I want to deal with some specific aspects about which I am concerned. In that respect we will be looking at amendments which will be dealt with further in the Dáil.

The issue of additional fixed charges and taxi penalty points must be looked at again. Mandatory disqualification for criminal convictions needs further scrutiny, particularly in the absence of spent convictions legislation. We mentioned previously at other opportunities that there is a need to ensure that political prisoners released under the Good Friday Agreement are not disqualified from working in the industry. The Minister might want to comment on that.

The section of the Bill dealing with declaring other work is too weak. Not only is a requirement voluntary but, crucially, there is no restriction on people having full-time jobs while working as part-time drivers.

Other important issues are not covered by the Bill, the most significant of which is the over-supply of licences and the inadequacies of the vetting system. Since regulation the number of licences has increased seven fold and in many areas there are too many taxis on the roads, too many multi-licence holders and too many part-time drivers. That was compounded by the inadequate vetting system.

If we are to have a quality taxi industry that provides a quality service to people and a stable income for drivers and their families those key issues must be addressed. We have argued previously that the taxi regulation directorate must be held to account through the Dáil committee and biannual reviews. As I said, there is a need for improved vetting, a minimum hours requirement for drivers, and greater regulation of the rental market to ensure best service and safety for taxis as well as allowing full-time drivers to make a decent living.

We want the taxi industry to recover; nobody here would refute that. We want to make sure that the best quality service is provided to customers and that the industry provides well-paid, stable employment to drivers. The Bill goes a great way towards some of that but much more needs to be done. I thank the Minister of State for all the work he has done in the area and for bringing so much legislation before the Seanad recently.