Among the industries and groups of workers in this country are the approximately 25,000 taxi drivers who have been crucified by the impact of Covid-19 public health restrictions. That will continue for as long as other sectors on which they depend for their income, such as music, entertainment, events, tourism and aviation, are affected. However, their appeals for specific assistance to deal with the debts they are accumulating, their ongoing costs and a financial package to help them survive and recover have been consistently refused by this Government.

To add insult to injury, taxi drivers were planning to come to Government Buildings at 10 o'clock this morning to engage in a public health compliant protest where they made it absolutely clear that they would be in their cars so as not to breach public health guidelines. Despite giving that clear assurance and communicating it to the Garda, on Wednesday, one of the representatives of the four national taxi groups received a call from Pearse Street Garda station in which they were informed that if taxi drivers turned up in their cars, every driver would be fined €100 and the organisers of the protest could face up to €20,000 in fines or up to two years' imprisonment. That is absolutely shocking.

This comes on top of a development the previous Thursday when gardaí facilitated KPMG strike-breakers doing non-essential work in non-essential retail removing stock, and physically removing, in quite a brutal way, mothers and grandmothers who were fighting for fair redundancy. I could add to that the legal threats against ESB workers pursuing a legitimate fight against outsourcing and privatisation in the ESB and film workers threatened with being fined and arrested a number of weeks ago for suggesting a protest at the RDS.

I ask the Tánaiste a very simple question. Is it the case that we have one law and one form of policing for workers who are engaging in public health compliant protests to try to secure redundancy rights, financial assistance for their industries and livelihoods which have been devastated, while the same gardaí and laws are being used to facilitate KPMG strike-breakers? Is it one law for the workers and another law for the strike-breakers? That is completely unacceptable. I ask the Tánaiste to respond.

I thank the Deputy. There is only one law and those are the laws that are passed by us, including the Deputy, here in this Oireachtas. The Garda is responsible for enforcing the laws we enact here in this Oireachtas. That is what gardaí have to do.

Regarding taxi drivers, the Government acknowledges that they are among the groups that have suffered the most in this pandemic, not in health terms but certainly in economic terms. We all know their business is heavily dependent on tourism and people attending events and availing of hospitality. As a result, they have seen a very major reduction in their incomes.

I have met taxi drivers, at the Deputy's suggestion, and I am following up on some of the issues they raised with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan. Most are self-employed and, as a result, can access a range of Covid-19 financial supports, including the PUP and the credit guarantee scheme. The Department of Transport has waived licence fees for 2021 at a cost of €2.6 million.

Taxi drivers eligible for the PUP are also allowed to continue to work and receive the payment. There is an income disregard which allows taxi drivers to earn up to €960 every eight weeks, net of any expenses, without jeopardising their entitlement to the payment. That is not only a crucial lifeline for those who, through no fault of their own, cannot work in the way they did previously but will also be an important financial support for drivers once they return to work and until passenger demand returns to more normal levels.

As I mentioned, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, met the taxi representative groups twice last year. I understand officials from the National Transport Authority, NTA, have been in regular dialogue for months with groups representing taxi drivers. The Minister and officials from his Department remain available to meet taxi representatives, as they would with any lobby group or representative organisation. Officials have also been engaging with the advisory committee on small public service vehicles. A meeting of the committee will be attended by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, today.

Taxi drivers have a number of simple demands, none of which have been met. They have asked for a financial package of supports to cover their fixed costs, which were estimated by the NTA a number of years ago at €11,000 a year. Those are debts they have been accumulating and they have been excluded from the schemes to support those fixed costs. They have asked for a moratorium on the issuing of licences. They have asked for the taxi advisory committee to be replaced with a body that allows them direct access to the relevant Ministers.

There are also other demands, many of which are non-financial. One such demand is to replace the rule requiring vehicles to be replaced after ten years with a rule stipulating 15 years, given that drivers have lost their incomes. None of those demands has been met and that is why the drivers were forced to organise a protest this morning. They have now had to call it off because, even though they made it clear they were going to comply with public health guidelines, they were threatened with fines, implications for the future licensing of their vehicles and the possibility of their leaders facing prison sentences or massive fines. Is that not political policing against taxi drivers? The same point could be made about what happened Debenhams workers last Thursday.

I can only repeat what I said earlier, that is, that laws are passed here by us in the Houses of the Oireachtas. There is no law on Covid that did not come through this House. The Garda is responsible for enforcing the law. Statutory instruments can, of course, be revoked by this House. I have not yet seen a proposal to revoke any of the statutory instruments put in place since this pandemic began. As I mentioned, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is going to meet the advisory committee on small public service vehicles today. It involves some taxi drivers but also consumers and others who have an interest in the sector and industry.

On the issuing of new licences, there is widespread awareness of the acute difficulties facing the industry. Since the pandemic started, the number of licences issued has decreased to a very small one because, understandably, very few are entering the industry at present. I am told by the Department that in view of that reality and the fact that a formal halt to the issuing of licences would require legislative change and might be anti-competitive, the Minister does not see how a moratorium would deliver any real benefits to anyone at this stage.