Vol. 517 No. 5
24 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on the role of the Dublin local authorities with regard to the issuing and monitoring of taxi licences over the past three year; their role in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10009/00]
The improvements in Dublin taxi services brought about under the aegis of the joint taxi-hackney committee of the four Dublin local authorities and of the Office of the Director of Traffic, Dublin Corporation, with input from the Dublin taxi forum have already been acknowledged. These improvements included the granting of some 750 wheelchair accessible taxi licences since 1997 and pilot testing of taxi sharing.
The Government's decision to provide for a more rapid expansion of the Dublin taxi fleet required that the determination of new taxi and wheelchair accessible taxi licences numbers in the Dublin taximeter area should be temporarily reserved to ministerial regulations. The delegation of full taxi regulation powers will be restored to the Dublin local authorities at the earliest possible date to allow them to maintain the equilibrium of taxi supply and demand into the future.
