Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator mentioned the latter point on Second Stage. I have worked with the National Transport Authority on this and the Senator makes a fair point in saying that the greatest use of transport services occurs in the evenings and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. We cannot deal with this legislatively but it is a matter of making the right resources and funding available directly to the National Transport Authority so it can do that work. We are working on that. I have met the teams that do this work and that go to the taxi ranks to ensure that taxi regulations are being well administered. I am also aware of feedback from the taxi industry that it wants to see more of that. We need to respond by increasing the resourcing, with the NTA being more efficient with its resources, so more work can be done at the time needed. That is instead of any change we can make in the law itself.

The Senator made a point about the signage being magnetic rather than adhesive. I am very reluctant to go down that path as we have made such progress in the uniform branding of taxi vehicles and in the context of increasing their quality. I will pass the Senator's observations to the NTA and its chief executive and ask for a report on what it is doing with the issue. I will share any feedback with the Senator.