Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Briefly, it is great to see that the Senators from Trinity are so united. I will reiterate a point I have made previously, which is that Senator Barrett's forensic knowledge of transport economics is something I admire hugely. In his contribution, Senator Norris referred to the overly-restricted taxi practices before deregulation. and the position in Dublin at that time was an absolute disgrace. Moreover, deregulation was necessary to deal with that because no agreement on any kind of a more lucid system was forthcoming from the taxi unions at the time. At the time, any reasonable suggestion put forward by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government was simply rubbished by the taxi unions, which wanted no change whatsoever. I agree that taxi deregulation as it has happened probably has gone too far and it is pitiful to see the whole of Dawson Street covered in taxis on a Saturday night. In this section and in the Bill in general, the Minister of State has achieved an attempt to come up with a balance. However, I suggest that it will be a movable feast in the sense that taxi regulation and legislation will be tweaked depending on needs. As society evolves and the habits of its citizens evolve over time, we probably will be obliged to address the issue of taxi regulation again and tweak it accordingly. Consequently, I suggest to my learned colleagues that they should give this legislation a chance. I am sure the Minister will be more than happy to review it in a couple of years' time, if that is deemed to be necessary.