Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding making exceptions on taxis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7080/13]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The regulation of the taxi industry, including issues pertaining to vehicle age limit, is a matter for the National Transport Authority (NTA) under the Taxi Regulation Act, 2003. The NTA is the lead agency with responsibility for implementation of the recommendations of the Taxi Regulation Review Report 2011.

The NTA carried out a consultation on vehicle standards as part of the Taxi Regulation Review in 2011 which recommends strengthening vehicle standards.

Action 10 of the Review Report recommends that the 9 year vehicle age limit should apply at licence issue or renewal for all new vehicles entering the fleet and for vehicles that have entered the fleet since 1st January 2009. Those entrants to the taxi industry since January 2009 have entered the industry on the basis of a 9-year age limit on vehicles.

As a transitional arrangement, existing vehicles in the fleet prior to 1 January 2009 can operate up to 14 years of age subject to 6-monthly NCT testing and NTA licence renewal assessment. Therefore, it is envisaged that, over time, all vehicles older than nine years will be removed from the taxi and hackney fleet.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding taxi drivers. [7081/13]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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From the end of January 2013 it is a requirement that all small public service vehicle (SPSV) operators notify the National Transport Authority (NTA) about the vehicles they are operating at any time. This is a once-off notification in the case of SPSV drivers who own their own vehicle.  Any changes such as with respect to rental agreements or change of vehicle will need to be notified.

I understand that free IT tools are available to facilitate this notification process, The "Taxi Industry Portal" smartphone application can be downloaded onto both Apple and Android smartphones. In addition, SPSV operators can use any PC or laptop to access the Taxi Portal over the Internet.

A call centre is currently operating all-day every-day to take telephone notifications. This is charged as a national number from landlines and mobile phones and is included in bundles of free calls from the various companies / operators.  The call centre is operated by the NTA and noting this, I have asked the NTA to respond directly to the Deputy with regard to the issues he has raised relating to access to the call-centre.

Please advise my private office if you don’t receive a reply from the NTA within 10 working days.