Brian Walsh (Galway West, Independent)
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1184. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to amend legislation to allow for the retrospective transfer of a taxi licence from one party to another in circumstances where the death occurred of the licence holder before special provisions were made in section 15 of the Taxi Regulation Act 2013, effective from 6 April 2014, and after the publication of the Taxi Regulation Review Report 2011, which recommended the introduction of a licence transfer scheme, in view of the fact this would apply to a very small number of cases; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22382/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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​The principle underlying the prohibition on the transfer of a small public service vehicle (SPSV) licence, recommended by the Taxi Regulation Review 2011, is that a licence should determine a person's suitability to carry out a function and it should have no monetary value or be traded on the open market. The prohibition provided for in section 14 of the Taxi Regulation Act 2013 addressed an anomaly whereby SPSV licences issued after January 2009 were non-transferable while licences issued prior to that date could be transferred once. The prohibition took effect from 6th April 2014 when the Taxi Regulation Act 2013 was commenced.

In the event of the death of a SPSV licence holder as a consequence of the provisions of section 14, the SPSV licence would stand revoked. Therefore special provisions were made in section 15 of the Taxi Regulation Act 2013 in relation to the death of a SPSV licence holder. They provide that an applicant for a licence or the holder of a licence may nominate a person as his or her representative who may apply to the National Transport Authority to continue to operate the licence in the event of his or her death. In the event of the death of the licence holder, his or her nominated representative may, within 3 months of the death of the licence holder, make an application to the National Transport Authority to continue to operate the licence until its expiry.

I therefore do not propose to amend the Taxi Regulation Act 2013 in relation to the prohibition on transfer of SPSV licences.