Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will reverse the decision that was made to disallow existing taxi drivers from selling or transferring their taxi plate when they retire, thus depriving parents of the opportunity to pass on their plate to their children and preventing taxi drivers from being able to get back the money the spent on the plate originally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43786/12]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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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.  

As set out in the Taxi Regulation Review Report 2011, 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. Action 14  of the Review Report proposes the introduction of a prohibition on the transferability of taxi vehicle licences such that 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 understand that the NTA has given notice to the industry concerning the introduction of the prohibition on transferring an SPSV licence from January 2013 and that the NTA  are still considering  whether or not, after 2013, the continuation of a taxi business by the next-of-kin can be facilitated following the death of a licence holder. A decision is expected shortly.