Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 12, line 20, after "knowledge" to insert the following:", including the use of global positioning systems,".

This amendment arose while discussing the reason the taxi deregulation in the Minister of State's constituency had the least impact of any county we examined. We said that perhaps people from the border areas of Kilkenny, Waterford and Limerick serve the area. The Minister of State expressed concerns that those people do not know the routes and so on. He said there was the possibility that a Limerick taxi driver going to Birdhill would have to go to Clonmel to do a knowledge test and this would happen for every county in the country. When we asked about satellite navigation and global positioning systems the Minister of State said that it was not an adequate substitute. I have asked people in the area if satellite navigation is a substitute for the written examination or if people need a PhD in taxi driving and geography lessons on each of the 32 counties to go anywhere. One professor of electrical engineering asked if the Minister of State was for real. He said that ambulances have satellite navigation, the Garda cars have global positioning systems and many of the commercial fleets use satellite navigation which are more than 90% reliable.

When the Minister of State made the statement on the last day I do not think he had seen his colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Sherlock, who promotes technology. People in the field cannot honestly believe the Minister of State's rejection of satellite navigation technology. We are not convinced. Ireland is a country which has engaged in modern technology and the technology is improving all the time. People can get it on their telephones. The system is better than requiring people to sit written examinations. I see the written examinations in the context of this Bill as another device by the Department to keep new entrants out. If the technology helps them to find houses on the tops of mountains and so on and is used by the ambulance service and the Irish Coast Guard, under the remit of his own Department, he should accept that satellite navigation is a substitute unless he wants to abolish pens and go back to the quill instead of abolishing calculators and examinations. The technophobia shown in the attitude to satellite navigation does not serve the Bill except to confirm again that the Minister of State is seeking new ways to keep people out. People in each county will lobby and succeed. The satellite navigation used by the Garda, the ambulance service and the fire service and from various companies, Garmin and TomTom, work. People find it incredible that the Minister of State insists on a written examination in this day and age. I will push the amendment to allow global positioning systems to be used to take people on taxi journeys. As it is used for everything else, I see no reason it cannot be used in this instance. I was not convinced by the Minister of State's requirement that a Limerick taxi driver on entering Birdhill would have to take a written examination on the geography of Tipperary.