It emerged on Monday that Fine Gael's 2016 general election manifesto featured text relating to the sharing economy supplied by ride-sharing app operator Uber, whose lobbyists has campaigned the government party to assist with efforts to loosen regulations in the taxi sector.
Founded in 2009, Uber allows motorists to operate a taxi service from their vehicle through its app, with gross bookings of $26.4bn in the first quarter and monthly active users of 115m.
Uber now operates in 10,000 cities in 72 countries worldwide and is valued at around $44bn (€41bn), and the company claims its platform was used to book 19m trips per day in the first three months of 2022.
Uber lobbied Fine Gael directly after reaching an impasse with the regulator, the National Transport Authority (NTA), according to documents from 2013-17 within a cache of 124,000 files leaked to the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The NTA ultimately ruled in June 2017 that Uber would not be permitted to operate a private car-sharing service in Ireland, meaning customers can only book taxis and limousines through the company's app.
In Association with
In a letter informing Uber of its decision, the NTA said company's proposal for a pilot scheme in Limerick that would allow private car users to offer their services to passengers through Uber was "undesirable".
Clarifying its position further, the NTA said it was not legal to operate an unlicensed ride-sharing serving in Ireland, and that even if it were, it would not support the Uber proposal. The NTA said operating an unregulated regime would undermine the regulated taxi sector.
"Notwithstanding the above legislative position, it should be stated that the NTA is unsupportive of this proposal," the NTA said in its letter.
“Operating parallel regulated and non regulated regimes, even on a pilot basis is undesirable in our view and can only serve to undermine the regulated transport system ... the issue of unfair competition arises. This is not an approach which could be supported by the NTA.”
Ireland is not really an outlier in hostility to Uber though. Several European countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Norway, have prohibited ride-sharing, leading Uber to shut down in a number of those countries.
Reacting to a tide of stories published worldwide in the wake of the Uber Files leak, Uber senior vice president of marketing and public affairs Jill Hazelbaker said Uber is "a different company today" following a number of lawsuits, investigations and executive firings in recent years.
Of CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced founder Travis Kalanick following a raft of reports of unethical corporate culture and sexual harassment at the company, she said: "Dara rewrote the company's values, revamped the leadership team, made safety a top company priority, implemented best-in-class corporate governance, hired an independent board chair, and installed the rigorous controls and compliance necessary to operate as a public company."
She added: "We've moved from an era of confrontation to one of collaboration, demonstrating a willingness to come to the table and find common ground with former opponents, including labor unions and taxi companies."
"We are now regulated in more than 10,000 cities around the world, working at all levels of government to improve the lives of those using our platform and the cities we serve."
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar last month said the government may reconsider the effective ban on ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft to address the shortage of taxis in Ireland's urban centres.
"What I find is when you go to other countries, you’ve got other options. Whether it’s public transport and also things like Uber and Lyft and things like that," he said.
"They’re just not available in Ireland in the same way. Maybe we need to look at that again, and see if we can liberalise [the sector]."
