Vol. 495 No. 2
15 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach the reason it was necessary for a representative of his Department to attend meetings of the taxi forum in view of the fact that the regulation of the taxi industry was passed to local authorities from the Department of the Environment in 1995; and the number of person hours spent by the representative on this task. [17640/98]
The Dublin Taxi Forum was established last December. Many of the issues it considered cut across departmental boundaries. For this reason a number of Government Departments and agencies, as well as the national taxi organisations, business and consumer interests were represented on the forum. The representative from my Department ensured that I was kept informed of developments. The time spent was approximately one half day per month.
The forum has now completed its work. It presented its recommendations to me on 2 September. A copy of the forum's recommendations has also been laid before the Dáil. I believe that the forum's recommendations should now be given urgent and serious consideration by the relevant Departments, agencies and interests.
