THE NATIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY has announced it is to revoke the ‘nine-year rule’ for taxi registrations, following complaints by cab drivers that the expense of replacing older vehicles was making the trade unsustainable.

The Authority – which assumed the functions of the Commission for Taxi Regulation on January 1 of this year – this morning said it was to revoke the rule, which requires that cars used as taxis be no older than nine years of age, for drivers renewing their licences in 2011 and who had sought their first licence before January 2009.

The decision means that taxi drivers who have been in the trade for over two years will now not be bound by the rule requiring them to replace their cars once they reach a certain age.

Transport minister Pat Carey said he welcomed the decision, and also hailed the decision by the NTA to begin a wider consultation on the standards taxi drivers and passengers should expect from the vehicles being used in the profession.

The authority said in a statement that it was to make “a review of appropriate vehicle standards for taxis”, for the benefit of the taxi customer, a main priority for 2011.

Jerry Brennan, an official with SIPTU’s taxi drivers branch, gave the news a tentative welcome but said the union required further clarification as to what exactly the effect of the announcement would be.

The exact nature of the NTA’s statement was “convoluted”, he said, but the impression SIPTU had gotten was that the rule would be removed, pending the appropriate legal procedures being put in place.

Drivers who got their licence after 2009 had been considered by the authorities to have been aware in advance about the new rule being enacted, Brennan surmised.

The union was opposed to the introduction of the rule in the first place, he added, explaining that the National Car Test ought to have been a fairer indication of whether a taxi was roadworthy or not.

The ‘nine year rule’ was originally proposed by the Commission for Taxi Regulation in 2006, and had been set for introduction in 2007, but implementation was put off until 2012 after the taxi industry complained that many drivers had taken out five-year loans for their vehicles – some of which would have been made unusable by the new rule.

The rule took effect last month, having been fast-tracked through by the Commission – with taxi drivers again opposing the move.

Today’s announcement follows election campaigning by both Fine Gael and Sinn Féin on taxi regulation in the past weeks; the latter’s document included a promise to carry out a full review of the ‘nine year rule’.