CALL ON NTA TO OVERHAUL ITS TECHNOLOGY AS GRANT FOR TAXI DRIVERS ALLOCATED IN JUST FIFTEEN MINUTES-Tóibín
Wednesday 8th January 2025, 15:00 pm
The NTA must immediately look at its technical systems and grant application processes as online applications for a grant available to taxi drivers towards the purchase of Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAV ) closed after just fifteen minutes.
That’s according to Aontú leader, Deputy Peadar Tóibín who says several disappointed and upset taxi drivers contacted his office this week to voice their utter frustration with the situation.
Deputy Toibin says “The WAV grant is worth €15,000 towards the purchase of wheelchair accessible vehicles which does help drivers buy their own cars. However the NTA ( National Transport Authority)opened its application process online this week (6thJanuary ) at 10 am and by 10.15am all the grants were gone. For all the grants to be allocated in just fifteen minutes is crazy, and means the current grant is incredibly limited and difficult to secure, currently only available to a tiny cohort of applicants”.
“One man who contacted our office said he was online bang on 10 am and locked out by 10.15am. He now has to wait until July to try again. A whole six months and no guarantee at all that he will be successful then and may have to wait a further six months and on it goes. Currently he is renting a taxi plate at a cost of some €300 per week and understandably wants to buy his own, and the grant of €15,000 would have gone some way towards purchasing his own vehicle, which would come in at around €90,000”..But he can’t as he needs the grant ”.
“This situation is totally unacceptable and is unfair”.
“The Government has asked the taxi industry to ensure more of its vehicles are accessible for people with disabilities and this is a fair request, but it seems bizarre that when drivers then try to draw down a grant in order to try and buy accessible vehicles the grants are all gone”.
“In response to my question to the NRA, a Spokesperson from the NRA said there were no issues with its system but did acknowledge that its website was slowed down due to the largenumber of applicants applying as soon as it opened to online applicants at 10am.”
“I find this utterly bizarre, and it is terribly unfortunate on the taxi drivers who were relying on this grant”.
“Another taxi man who contacted my office said he spent the first 15 minutes just trying to get on to the application section of the NTA website. He claimed that Taxi drivers could apply for 5 grants at thesame time with no consequence if they did not take up the offer hence everybody that got online applied for 5 grants. The man also said there was no facility for making a postal application and he claimed that the NTA ‘’s own call centre staff were almost in tears such was the frustration being aimed at them by frustrated drivers .This is a complete shambles and is not doing anybody any justice. Hard working drivers will leave the industry if they are not treated fairly and that would be a real shame and not a scenario anybody wants ”.
