Vol. 568 No. 1
601 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport if he has received a copy of the recommendations of the EU Committee of Petitions in relation to the deregulation of taxis; if he intends to act on these recommendations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15166/03]
I have received a copy of the report of the EU Committee on Petitions in relation to its fact-finding mission to Ireland in connection with the effects of taxi liberalisation. I met the delegation from the committee on 4 April 2003 and outlined the background to taxi liberalisation and the establishment of the independent three person taxi hardship panel to them. I also explained that the panel was established by the Government to report in general terms on the nature and extent of extreme personal financial hardship that may have been experienced by individual taxi licence holders arising from loss of income as a direct result of liberalisation and that based on legal precedent there can be no legal duty on the State to compensate taxi licence holders in relation to open market licence values that may have existed prior to liberalisation. This position remains unchanged.
On 17 December 2002 the Government approved the implementation on a phased basis of the recommendations of the taxi hardship panel in accordance with an Agreed Programme for Government. Any payments to be made as a result of this implementation will not represent compensation but rather compassionate payments in respect of extreme personal financial hardship experienced by taxi licence holders arising from the liberalisation of the taxi market. The report of the taxi hardship panel recommends the establishment of a scheme to provide payments to individual taxi licence holders who fall into one of six categories that the panel assessed as having suffered extreme personal financial hardship.
The design and administration of a scheme to implement the recommendations of the taxi hardship panel and the arrangements to facilitate the making of payments to eligible persons is being progressed as quickly as possible so as to ensure that applications are dealt with on a confidential and objective basis. While every effort is being made to put in place a structure to facilitate the commencement of payments on the basis of the panel recommendations as soon as possible, I do not have current proposals for any payments beyond the recommendations of the panel report.
