Sinn Féin : Environment Minister must honour pledge and remove wedding cars from taxi regulation-McMullan

14 January, 2016 - by Oliver McMullan

Sinn Féin MLA Oliver McMullan has called for Environment Minister Mark H Durkan to honour his pledge to owners of cars used for weddings and funerals and remove them from the taxi regulations.

Mr McMullan said,

'I have been approached by providers of wedding and funeral cars who are concerned that by including them in taxi regulation will add to unnecessary expense to their businesses.

'Wedding and funeral cars tend to be used for specific journeys during daylight hours and are not constantly on the road.

'Many of the vehicles tend to be vintage cars designed for ceremonial purposes and some are actually two doored or convertibles.

'Due to this fact alone many of the cars will now be judged to be illegible to be used even though the owners see themselves as part of the wedding industry as opposed to the transport industry.

'The Minister of Environment Mark H Durkan promised representatives of the industry that they would be removed from the forthcoming legislation only for his Department to proceed to include them.

'I am now calling on the Minister to act immediately to remove these cars from the legislation before it is brought before the Assembly so that they can continue to work in the specific area these cars were designed for.'