It comes as the Coalition will appear before the National Transport Authority’s Small Public Service Vehicle (SPSV) Advisory Committee today.
New data shows the number of drivers and SPSVs, including taxis, is expected to drop significantly based on the average trend of the last 10 years, despite a forecast population increase.
The research, conducted by Arup for the Taxis for Ireland Coalition, has found that the population in Ireland increased by 15pc since 2014 while the number of SPSV drivers decreased by 10pc.
Whereas, the number of licensed taxis per 1,000 residents in Ireland decreased by 17pc – from 4.5 to 3.7.
Therefore, the Taxis for Ireland Coalition is set to urge the Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to commit to developing a sector-specific strategy and its integration with existing transport policy frameworks.
The Coalition will appear before the Advisory Committee today to discuss recommendations aimed at improving taxi supply, efficiency and reliability of taxi services.
The group already met with the Minister in July when it proposed 15 recommendations to the NTA and Department of Transport to alleviate taxi shortage.
The recommendations include the assessment of taxi availability in urban areas from 12am to 4am and the examination of the provision of hackneys to expand rural Ireland’s transport offering.
Another recommendation is that the NTA should review the numbers of SPSVs on a county-by-county basis due to a reduction in taxi numbers in 23 out of 26 counties from 2019 to 2023.
The taxi numbers in Ireland have decreased by 3.54pc during this period, with the largest drops seen in Monaghan with a decrease of 26.53pc, followed by Kildare with 22.83pc, and Wexford – 22.07pc.
There are only three counties that experienced an increase in taxi numbers between 2019 and 2023 – Limerick by 6.72pc, Kerry by 2.31pc and Dublin by 0.96pc.
CEO of the Vintners Federation of Ireland Pat Crotty said: “We are committed to working collaboratively with the NTA and other stakeholders to develop practical and effective solutions that will benefit both taxi operators and the public.”
“The taxi shortage has been a constant theme throughout urban and rural Ireland alike, and our recommendations aim to alleviate the difficulties people face across the country,” he added.
