Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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246. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason previously implemented Covid related extensions to taxi licence age limits, specifically for vehicles originally reaching their 10-year limit which were extended to 2025, were limited to taxi licences and not to hackney licences; his plans to extend this to hackney licences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48930/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The regulation of the small public service vehicle (SPSV) industry, including vehicle age limits for SPSVs. is a matter for the independent transport regulator, the National Transport Authority (NTA), under the provisions of the Consolidated Taxi Regulation Acts 2013 and 2016. I have no role in the day-to-day operations of the SPSV sector.

As the Deputy is aware, although SPSV passenger usage returned to pre-Covid-19 levels in mid-2022, that year brought new challenges in relation to replacement vehicle supply in Ireland. Climate, energy and geopolitical challenges in particular, made it difficult for all end-of-life taxis and hackneys to be replaced in 2022 and beyond. As a result, and following a public consultation, the NTA made Regulations which permitted taxis and hackneys with a final operation date between 2020 and 2024 to operate for a period beyond the maximum permissible age once all other licensing requirements continued to be met. Those Regulations took effect on 18 November 2022 and provided for maximum age extensions of 36 to 60 months, depending on the original final year of operation of the impacted vehicle.

One of the consequences of the 2022 regulations was that vehicles first registered in 2012, 2013 and 2014 could operate longer than vehicles first registered in 2015. The 2025 Programme for Government (PfG) commits to 'extend the ten-year vehicle limit for taxis registered in 2015, offering another year of service'. The NTA introduced a Regulation on 1 April 2025 to fulfil this PfG commitment which refers specifically to taxis. This Regulation allows 2015 registered taxis an additional year of operation, thus providing a 2026 final operating date for those vehicles. From Jan 1st, 2028, all the extensions provided for under the 2022 Regulations will have ended.