Vol. 535 No. 1
388 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government whether grant aid will be made available to taxi owners in respect of the regulations under which they will be obliged to issue receipts on their meter and have their taxis wheelchair assessable from 2003 and if his attention has been drawn to the fact that this will add to considerable cost to taxi owners. [11381/01]
The Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations, 2000, establish a revised regime for taxi licensing. This extends to certain new qualitative controls, including a requirement to issue automatic receipts from 1 January 2002. I have also put on record my intention that, by end 2003, the process will commence of making all taxi vehicles wheelchair accessible.
It is intended to consult extensively with representatives of consumer groups, of disabled persons, of taxi service providers and others, to develop further quality improvements for taxi services in the medium term. These may include, if appropriate, further improvements of the existing specification for wheelchair accessible taxis.
Responsibility for providing and equipping vehicles to specified taxi standards has always rested with taxi service providers and a change in this position is not proposed.
