Prices are going up as well.

From today, all taxis in Ireland are now required to accept card payments. The new rule was approved by the National Transport Authority earlier this summer, and, as BreakingNews reports, it requires all taxis to have a cashless payment device in their vehicle, should passengers opt to pay with card. In other taxi updates, today will also see fares rise by 12%. This means that the initial charge for a journey will rise from €3.80 to about €4.20. The NTA have said that the rise in fares both reflects the rise in operational costs taxi drivers are facing, and to cover costs associated with the introduction of mandatory cashless payment facilities. Last week, the group's Director of Public Transport Regulation Wendy Thompson spoke to RTÉ News at One about the changes. She said: "Our role as taxi regulator is to ensure that the consumer gets a high quality modern affordable and accessible service but while striking a fair balance with the self-employed taxi drivers nationwide. "NTA reviews the maximum fare every two years. "The full fare review examined all the running costs and fixed costs that a driver has to pay to give a taxi service in today's economic environment. "So, that includes... the fuel prices, the energy prices, the cost of vehicles and so on and then we look at that together with [the] macro environment and the cost of living changes for both drivers and passengers. "This time, because of what was going on in the post-pandemic era and the socialising that had been taken up again, we also considered very strongly the passenger demand and how that's changed since pre-Covid times, particularly for the nighttime trips and the socialising trips." According to Ms Thompson, trips for socialising have risen by 45% in Dublin since the Covid restrictions eased.