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UBER HOPES TO set up its flagship carsharing service in Limerick when it resumes its lobbying efforts after the upcoming election.
But its management admits they are facing an uphill battle to convince government figures to give it the leeway to run the controversial offering.
The polarising company today opened its first ‘centre of excellence’ outside the US in the Irish city, where it already employs around 100 of a planned 300-plus person workforce in the Thomas St headquarters.
From the complex, staff will carry out support and customer-service duties for Uber’s operations in 30 cities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Andrew Byrne, Uber’s head of public policy for the UK and Ireland, told TheJournal.ie there was an opportunity to make Limerick a “sharing economy innovation hub for Europe” with the trial of a peer-to-peer carsharing scheme.
Ireland’s tight taxi regulations have so far meant the company, and its international competitors, have been effectively banned from brokering paid trips in anything other than licensed cabs and chauffeur-driven cars.
“We’ve certainly talked to Limerick about doing a pilot project in Limerick and you can get derogations from national legislation for that sort of thing,” Byrne said.
“Frankly, it’s a conversation that we will probably have in a meaningful way after the election.”
A collision course
While Uber has proved wildly successful with consumers worldwide by facilitating cheap journeys in private cars through its app, that ever-increasing footprint has also put it on a collision course with licensed taxi providers and authorities in many cities.
Today Byrne insisted Uber’s role wasn’t to replace taxis, rather it was to remove the need for people to own private cars.
It functioned particularly well on the underserved outskirts of major cities and as a service for young people who otherwise wouldn’t have paid for a cab, he added.
“Ireland has a particularly history with the taxi industry that probably makes things slightly more difficult and makes politicians more reluctant to get involved in something that might affect the wider industry,” he said.
However the local public-relations campaign against the world’s most valuable startup, which reached an eye-popping valuation of $51 billion on its latest venture-capital drive, has been snowballing in recent days.
Taxi-booking rival Hailo released a survey on Friday that reported 81% of respondents were against commercial carsharing, or ridesharing, because they felt it was “unsafe and illegal”.
In the face of aggressive competition from companies like Uber and Lyft, the UK-based outfit has been forced to pull out of North America altogether and in 2014 it made a reported loss of £21.8 million.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil yesterday called on government ministers Michael Noonan and Jan O’Sullivan to boycott Uber’s launch after it was revealed the company didn’t pay Irish VAT on the commission it charged drivers for bookings made through its app.
The fees are siphoned through Uber’s subsidiary in the Netherlands, where the company says it books all its international revenue.
Uber Ireland general manager Kieran Harte said he was ”bemused” to see the story appear from “certain politicians” the day before Uber confirmed its €4 million investment in Limerick and creation of 300-plus jobs.
He said the company was “totally compliant” with Irish tax rules, as it was for every country in which it operated.
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We are one of the “lucky ones” who have managed to secure a place for September only a year late. If this was typical children , with a whole year of primary education lost, heads would roll. I’m so relieved we have a school place for the the upcoming September but I also feel guilt for having a place when so many others don’t. Everything about this proposal irks me but most of all the fact that they are centres and not schools. Children want to go to school. Even children with special needs.
Madigan and Foley are incompetent self serving liars who should resign.
Through section 37a of the schools admissions act which allows the ministers to compel schools to set up special classes they have had the authority to resolve this for years.
They opposed it existing, watered down the original version of the law and have underused and abused it ever since.
They do not care and this latest “I could fix it but let’s segregate you kids and deny them their right to an appropriate education just cos” proves that point.
If the solution is a short term fix, that’s ok and better than nothing.
However if it is the schools and the department messing it about that’s different altogether.
I always look to the departments to see they why things are going wrong. Most ministers read what they are handed as the reason something cannot happen or is not happening at present.
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