A legal provision that would allow for the automatic disqualification of taxi drivers when they are convicted of serious offences has not been brought into force, it emerged today.
Roisín Shortall of the Labour Party called on the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, to introduce the legislation immediately "for the sake of the travelling public and the law-abiding majority of taxi drivers".
Section 36 of the Taxi Regulation Act 2003 allows for disqualifying taxi drivers convicted of murder, manslaughter, assault, rape, firearms offences, drug-trafficking and serious traffic offences.
"Clearly the vast majority of taxi drivers are law abiding and have no criminal record whatsoever, but as long as there is this uncertainty as to the background of our taxi drivers, there is a risk that they will all be tarred with the same brush," Ms Shortall added.
In February of last year the Department of Transport said it planned to introduce "within a matter of months" a ban on individuals with criminal records from driving taxis.
Speaking this afternoon Minister for Transport Martin Cullen conceded that people had a genuine concern. However,
he denied having specific legislative proposals relating to section 36 of the Act in front of him.
Mr Cullen said that it would be one of a number of issues dealt with by the new Road Safety Authority. "I want to see it resolved in that context and that's very imminent," he said.
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