Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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764. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if any special provision will be made for a person whose SPSV licence has lapsed over the course of an ongoing insurance dispute which has left them temporarily without a vehicle. [5597/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The National Transport Authority (NTA) has responsibility for the regulation of the taxi industry under the provisions of the Public Transport Regulation Act, 2009. The NTA is also the lead agency with responsibility for implementation of the recommendations of the Taxi Regulation Review Report 2011. Action 16 of the Taxi Regulation Review Report recommended a reduction in the period during which an "inactive" Small Public Service Vehicle licence may be reactivated from the current five year period to one year.

The Taxi Regulation Act, 2013, which gives legal effect to many of the recommendations of the Review Report, was signed into law on the 23 October 2013. The NTA has prepared draft SPSV regulations under the Taxi Regulation Act 2013 that will introduce some new measures provided for under the Act, as well as consolidating and replacing the existing regulations. The draft regulations, including provisions reducing the period for reactivation of expired SPSV licences to twelve months after the date of expiry of the licence, were the subject of a public consultation process that concluded on 31st January 2014. It is expected that the new regulations will be introduced in tandem with the commencement of the Act in early April, 2014.