Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11 ============================================================ Patrick O'Donovan (FG), Limerick County I thank Deputy Coppinger for raising what is an important issue, particularly at this time of year. We should all be cognisant and reminded of the great work taxi drivers and hackney drivers do all over the country in bringing us home safely in communities across the country, particularly when we are all so anxious to ensure that people do not drink and drive. We want people to go out and enjoy themselves and the reliance on night-time economy workers like taxi drivers and hackney drivers is very important. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is on Government business abroad at present. I agree with the Deputy that no one should be vilified for any approach they take as regards their relationships with either State structures or anything else. I would just like to put that on the record. The Minister wrote to the National Transport Authority, NTA, to request clarification on the regulatory position on the Uber fixed-price fare for the information of taxi operators and public reps alike. In the response to his letter, the Minister was advised by the NTA that the charging of a fixed-price fare was in accordance with the applicable regulations. He was also advised that the NTA continued to keep the regulatory model under review. The Minister instructed his senior departmental officials to meet the NTA to discuss the response. Following the meeting, which took place on Tuesday, 9 December, the Minister formally requested the urgent consideration of the matter by the advisory committee on small public service vehicles. That is to take place today. I am sure the Deputy will agree that it is important that these discussions be allowed to take place without feeling pressure from anybody, including anybody in the House. The advisory committee on small public service vehicles is an independent body, established under the taxi regulations of 2013. Its primary function is to provide advice to the NTA as the regulator and to the Minister for Transport regarding taxis, hackneys and their drivers. Members of the committee include drivers, operators, representatives of consumer interests, disability interests, local government, An Garda Síochána and the tourism sector. I hope that, after today, we might have a greater degree of clarity. The Minister is on Government business abroad at present, and I am sure that when he returns to the House next week, we will have greater clarity in this regard. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-11