Joe Flaherty
Question:165. Deputy Joe Flaherty asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will address a matter regarding the 2013 taxi regulations (details supplied). [18421/20]
View answerTuesday, 28 July 2020
Questions (165)
Written answers
At present, the transfer of SPSV licences is prohibited under section 14(1) of the Taxi Regulation Act 2013. Section 15 of the same Act does provide for an SPSV licence to continue to be operated by a person who was nominated by the licence holder in advance of his or her death.
There are no plans to amend this legislation at this time. The rationale for the measure was that a licence should indicate a person’s suitability to carry out a function and should not have, by association, a monetary value or be tradeable on the open market. As quantitative restrictions have been removed from the taxi market and there are no barriers to entry to this industry - other than the obligation to use a wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) - it is not clear how the transferring of licences would deliver benefits to the industry or members of the public, especially those who require access to WAVs.
Under the current SPSV Regulations the holder of a taxi licence may rent or lease a licence to another person. Further information on rules for such arrangements can be obtained directly from the National Transport Authority, which is the statutory regulator for the sector.