279 Mr. Lawlor asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if, further to Parliamentary Question No. 272 of 5 December 2000 in relation to taxi deregulation, he will now provide information on the current number of conditional offers of licences by Dublin Corporation; and the actual take up figures to date. [5444/01]

The granting of taxi and wheelchair accessible taxi licences is the responsibility of individual local licensing authorities to whom applications for taxi licences are made. Dublin Corporation administers these licensing functions in the Dublin taximeter area.

I am advised that a total of 3,047 new applications for taxi and wheelchair accessible taxi licences had been received by Dublin Corporation by 23 February 2001 and that conditional offers of licences have been made by the corporation in respect of all of these applications. Some 2,137 taxi licences, including in excess of 130 wheelchair accessible taxi licences, had been granted by Dublin Corporation under the new regulations by 23 February 2001.

In line with the allocation of responsibility for taxi licence administration outlined above, further requests for statistical information regarding licence applications and taxi licences granted may be appropriately addressed to the licensing authority concerned.