The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) supports proposals put forward by the Minister for Transport, Mr. Seamus Brennan TD, for the introduction of a uniform colour for taxis in Ireland.

As the primary service provider for people with vision impairments, NCBI believe that if all taxis were a strong bright colour, approximately 65,000 vision impaired people in Ireland would find it easier to locate, identify and hail taxis. Director of Services at NCBI, Elaine Howley stated "people with vision impairments rely significantly on all forms of public transport including taxis. Currently we are frustrated with public transport policies that favour a dull grey banality for train stations, bus stations, airports, and in particular the new Luas trams and tram stations, which make access to these services more difficult for people with vision impairments. We are disappointed that in the past some of our representations on this matter have been overlooked and we hope that this time the needs of vision impaired people will be taken into consideration when making a decision on the colour of Ireland's taxis."

NCBI recognises that costs will obviously be incurred by such a change, and hope the regulator will ensure that taxi drivers will be compensated in some way for any additional costs incurred by any such regulations.