New figures released by the National Transport Authority have revealed that only 5% of licensed taxis around the country are wheelchair-accessible.

Despite efforts to increase the amount of accessible vehicles on the road, their number has actually decreased by almost 40% since 2008.

13% of the Irish population is currently living with a disability according to the Central Statistics Office.

President of the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation Joe Heron has explained why he thinks there are not more of the taxis on the road.

“Cost (is a factor), it’s much more expensive to run a wheelchair-accessible taxi than it is a saloon taxi,” said Heron.

“I think the problem was exacerbated in 2008 when it had the highest number of wheelchair-accessible taxis, that was at the start of the slump. Since then when things started to pick up in the economy people got out of taxi work.”