Vol. 565 No. 4
155 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Transport if he will report on his recent meeting with the European Parliament's petitions committee regarding the petition from the FAIR group; and his response to the complaints being investigated by this committee. [11234/03]
I welcomed the opportunity for dialogue with the delegation from the EU committee on petitions on 4 April 2003 and listened carefully to the points made by the delegation in relation to a very complex situation. I took the opportunity to explain the background to taxi liberalisation and the independent three person taxi hardship panel that 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.
I also explained that the Government has approved the implementation of the taxi hardship panel recommendations and that every effort will be made to put in place a structure to facilitate the commencement of payments on the basis of those recommendations as soon as possible. I have also agreed to have a further meeting with representatives from FAIR. I understand that the EU committee on petitions proposes to submit a further report on the FAIR petition in due course.
