Uber told its model is not compatible with Irish legislation

The Uber mobile phone app allows users looking for a ride to be matched with amateur drivers who have signed up with the Uber service to use their own cars to provide rides.

The slogan on the Uber website is “Sign Up to Drive or Tap and Ride”.

However, its Irish services currently only allow licensed taxi drivers to provide rides.

Uber Ireland general manager Kieran Harte has said the company is in “positive discussions with all stakeholders with regards to the framework needed to scale the business in Ireland”.

However, a spokesperson for the National Transport Authority (NTA) told the Irish Examiner: “The ridesharing transport model, operating in certain jurisdictions outside Ireland, has been to use vehicles and drivers which, and who, do not hold the conventional licences required for taxis or hackneys for the carriage of persons for reward.

“That model of operating commercial services for hire without licences is not a model that would comply with primary legislation in Ireland, and it is not anticipated that small public-service vehicles legislation will be amended in this regard.

“Uber Ireland Technologies Ltd is licensed by the National Transport Authority, as a small public-service vehicles dispatch operator.

“Uber has categorically assured the National Transport Authority that, in Ireland, it contracts only with licensed drivers using licensed vehicles, together with operating the taximeter and remaining within the maximum fares order for taxi journeys as obliged at law.”