Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 November 2018
488. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to allow increased capacity and to tackle rising insurance costs in the taxi industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46545/18]
View answerThe regulation of the small public service vehicle (SPSV) industry is a matter for the National Transport Authority (NTA) under the provisions of the Taxi Regulation Act 2013.
The NTA is continuing with its efforts to increase the number of taxi, hackney and limousine (SPSV) drivers in Ireland. NTA reported at the end of October 2018 that there were 26,310 SPSV drivers licensed to provide hire and reward services nationwide. 2018 sees a reversal of the decline in numbers of drivers in the fleet experienced for many years, with October showing the eighth consecutive monthly increase in those numbers.
In the last year, there has been an increase of 59% per month in the average number of new SPSV Driver Licences granted. This increase is linked, in particular, with NTA bringing in changes to the SPSV Driver Entry Test, launching a national taxi driver a recruitment campaign earlier this year, and continuing to assist prospective drivers and licensed rental companies with grants towards the cost of wheelchair accessible vehicles
As you may know, the pricing of insurance products is a commercial issue for insurance companies, based on an assessment of the risks that they are willing to accept. This position is reinforced by the EU framework for insurance which expressly prohibits Member States from adopting rules which require insurance companies to obtain prior approval of the pricing or terms and conditions of insurance products. Following the publication of the Department of Finance Working Group's Report on the Cost of Motor Insurance last year, the Advisory Committee on SPSVs met with Insurance Ireland and both parties have agreed that there should be ongoing engagement between them. I believe that this will be an important channel to ensure that the concerns of taxi drivers can be articulated and addressed.
