Government proposals for an increase in Dublin's taxi fleet were announced by the Minister of State for the Environment during a debate on a Fine Gael's Private Member's motion on public transport. Mr Robert Molloy said that by the end of next year the taxi fleet would be increased by some 3,100 to over 5,800, including 1,300 wheelchair-accessible taxis.

He added that the regulations giving effect to the proposals would be prepared by his Department as a matter of urgency. "These will temporarily suspend the present delegation of certain powers to Dublin local authorities. However, this delegation will be restored at the earliest possible date and to allow the Dublin local authorities to maintain the equilibrium of taxi supply and demand into the future."

Earlier, the Fine Gael spokesman on transport, Mr Ivan Yates, said the Government should now introduce a 50 per cent increase in taxi licences. "Currently, on a daily basis, I receive complaints that people cannot even book a taxi from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Dublin. The dire queue situation has sharply worsened. Mary Harney has bluffed on this issue. This will be the third Christmas where the Government has failed to tackle the vested interests."

Mr Molloy said the Government's assessment was that this level of increase would not guarantee the high quality of service to the public now required.

Introducing the Fine Gael motion, which included the franchising out of bus routes to the private sector where Bus Eireann was not providing a service, Mr Yates accused the Government of having no national transport policy.

"There is no escaping the fundamental need for a White Paper on public transport," he said. "Only through such a comprehensive approach can we get the type of political priority to succeed in achieving an effective modernisation of our public transport network and a modal switch from private motoring."

There were new administrative structures to deal with the plethora of agencies which were failing to come to grips with traffic gridlock in the greater Dublin area, such as a greater Dublin transport authority, he said. There was a need to radically re-regulate bus competition.

Mr Yates called for an independent rail safety authority to reassure commuters through the separation of operational and safety railway issues.

"Commuters are simply fed up with Minister O'Rourke's repeated announcements while the reality is ever longer journey times and paralysing traffic gridlock. There have been literally more announcements than buses provided on the streets."

Fine Gael was proposing, with immediate effect, that instead of the bus fare rise the average State subsidy by subvention to Dublin Bus should be 5p per passenger journey on condition that integrated ticketing and late-night services were made available.

Ms Olivia Mitchell (FG, Dublin South) said the traffic problems in Dublin were reaching breaking point. "In the short term, Dublin's only hope of salvation lies in additional buses. Although the 150 buses bought from the lost LUAS project last year have now all been absorbed, with no noticeable impact on the streets, not a single additional bus has been ordered."

The Labour spokesman on public enterprise, Mr Emmet Stagg, said the powerful stranglehold which the taxi lobby had on Fianna Fail beggared belief. "There is a chronic lack of taxis in Dublin city. I want to compliment the Minister on tackling that lobby and taking decisions which will, in effect, more than double the number of taxis available to the public by the end of next year."