I was thinking about the same question. I have heard of them buying drugs from dealers in the past and convicting the dealers based on the evidence of the Garda who bought the drugs. I'm not sure if there is a general rule or legislation about this.Also are the Gardai able to mount sting operations like Prime Time did to obtain evidence? I have my doubts that they are.
All depends on what the legislation says. If the legislation doesn't give the Regulator any power to regulate the condition of the vehicles, there is nothing she can do.Some good points there. I was listening to the Taxi Regulator yesterday on Matt Cooper and she was basically deflecting responsibility to the gardai and others for all questions she was asked. Surely the Taxi Regulator should be the one organising these spot checks...ie regulating the industry?
Also are the Gardai able to mount sting operations like Prime Time did to obtain evidence? I have my doubts that they are.
All depends on what the legislation says. If the legislation doesn't give the Regulator any power to regulate the condition of the vehicles, there is nothing she can do.
anyone know what the Regulator gets paid (wages and expenses) and how much her office costs to run per year? It must be 1 easy life in that office
Also- apart from Prime Time....are there any investigative journalists in this country???? Surely stories like this would be manna from heaven for a tabloid journalist. Ask the right questions, meet the right people, a few hidden cameras and a bit of staking out of targets etc....no major expense and you have a story which could run for a few days and sell a lot of extra copies
They'd be acting ultra-vires if they go beyond their legal powers, and will find themselves injuncted at the drop of a hat.Even if the regulator didn't have these powers legally, I would have thought that they would be tasked with arranging this to be done by the relevant authority....co-ordinating the various tasks to be done by a regulator (even if they can't actually perform them themselves).
They'd be acting ultra-vires if they go beyond their legal powers, and will find themselves injuncted at the drop of a hat.
Maybe somebody (who knows a bit more about it than you or me) felt that it made more sense to let the Gardai continue to use their existing powers to enforce the safety issues, then to build a whole new legal infrastructure for the regulator and their staff.However it begs the question as to why the legal powers weren't granted to the regulator in the first place...not much point having a toothless regulator.
Maybe somebody (who knows a bit more about it than you or me) felt that it made more sense to let the Gardai continue to use their existing powers to enforce the safety issues, then to build a whole new legal infrastructure for the regulator and their staff.
Maybe somebody (who knows a bit more about it than you or me) felt that it made more sense to let the Gardai continue to use their existing powers to enforce the safety issues, then to build a whole new legal infrastructure for the regulator and their staff.
I take the point, but without authority you cannot have responsibility, so the regulator is in effect toothless in this function.
That's one way of looking at it
Another way is that all these regulators (banking is another example) were set up by the prevailing governments of the day as a sop to public sentiment at the time in order to garner votes for the next 5-year merry-go-round.
As far as I can see the 2 mentioned merely pay lip service to what the general public actually believe a regulator should do, ie regulate.
She leaves the Health & Safety Authority, Revenue, the Courts, ComReg, EPA, and Equality Tribunal and of course the Gardai to continue to look after their existing responsibilities, and she concentrates on the core taxi business..
Would you like to explain how you concluded that they are 'not doing what they ought to do'?WOW .so many more people not doing what they ought to do,than I originally thought!!
The Regulator is indeed toothless in this function, just as she is toothless on health and safety matters, on VAT matters, on copyright matters, on wireless frequency signal matters, on environmental pollution matters, on equality matters and on a whole lot of other matters.
She leaves the Health & Safety Authority, Revenue, the Courts, ComReg, EPA, and Equality Tribunal and of course the Gardai to continue to look after their existing responsibilities, and she concentrates on the core taxi business.
So are you really, really certain that we'd be better off with a stronger regulator, duplicating the existing functions of all these other agencies?
Would you like to explain how you concluded that they are 'not doing what they ought to do'?
The issue here is that there are so many identities that the buck cannot stop anywhere. The Taxi Regulator should IMO be ultimately responsible for all of these. This way, the TR would make sure that the guards did their job, the NCT testers did their job and so on.
How can the Taxi Regulator (If this position still exists?) be responsible for the NCT testers doing their job?
The NCT is for all privately owned vehicles in the State and a Taxi Regulator cannot have any interference in this. This is the responsibility of the NTA and the Minister for Transport.