Vol. 515 No. 1
177 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will make the regulation permitting use of bus lanes by hackneys from 1 March 2000 when external identification becomes mandatory. [5356/00]
As indicated in reply to Question No. 118 of 27 January 2000, full access to bus lanes is at present permitted only to buses and large public service vehicles. Pedal cycles and taxis may use with flow bus lanes. Hackneys, as private hire vehicles, have not been permitted to use bus lanes in view of their more limited service role, which does not involve publicly standing or plying for hire. The Dublin Taxi Forum, while recommending some form of external identification for hackneys to facilitate enforcement of regulations by the Garda Síochána, nonetheless recommended against the merging of the separate service roles of taxis and hackneys, against roof signage for hackneys and against permitting access to bus lanes by hackneys. I have no proposals to extend the use of bus lanes to hackneys at this time.
