Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 640: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on matters regarding taxi regulation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13667/12]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The regulation of the taxi industry, including issues pertaining to the renewal and transfer of vehicle licences, is a matter for the National Transport Authority (NTA) under the provisions of the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009.

Currently, certain categories of SPSV vehicle licences are non-transferable, meaning they are individual to the person to whom they are issued and cannot be sold to a different person. A similar arrangement exists for taxi licences issued since January 2009 but an anomaly does exist in that taxi licences issued prior to the 1st January 2009 can be sold or transferred on one occasion.

It was considered by the Review Group that it was necessary to move away from a system whereby a licence will have value in itself - a licence should determine a person's suitability to carry out a function and it should not have monetary value or be traded on the open market. As a result, the Review Group agreed to introduce a prohibition on the transferability of taxi vehicle licences such that after 1st October 2012 all taxi vehicle licences will be unique to the person to whom the licence has been issued and cannot be transferred or sold to another individual.

I do not intend to introduce a scheme for buying back SPSV licences.

I will arrange for your correspondence to be forwarded to the NTA for any additional information the NTA considers appropriate. If you do not receive a reply within ten working days please notify my private office.