Main taxi unions request resignation of regulator

THE FOUR main taxi unions yesterday requested the resignation of taxi regulator Kathleen Doyle due to what unions say is her contribution to the current state of the industry.

Representatives of the National Taxi Drivers’ Union (NTDU), the Irish Taxi Drivers’ Federation, Siptu and the National Private Hire and Taxi Association handed a letter into the Commission for Taxi Regulation’s Dublin office yesterday afternoon.

“I don’t think she is up for the job and is not doing anything in the interest of drivers and the general public,” NTDU spokesman Tommy Gorman told The Irish Times. “The business is in turmoil and we need the regulator to be someone with the best interests of the business,” he added.

The regulator’s office had no comment to make on the call for Ms Doyle’s resignation.

Unions are set to ask Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey in the next few weeks to put a moratorium on taxi licences.

They hope to meet Mr Dempsey when they receive independent analysis of the Goodbody economic review on the taxi industry.

Mr Gorman said there was little appetite out there for the recent driver work stoppages. He said dialogue was instead the way forward.

An increase in the taxi driver’s licence fee from €3 to €250 on May 1st was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” which “didn’t go down well with the industry”, Mr Gorman said.

However, the regulator said the taxi driver licence fee increase was necessary to cover administration costs.

The fee had not been increased since 1977.

Mr Gorman was also unhappy with the the extension of a new driver knowledge test to the existing drivers in future.

But the regulator has defended the test’s introduction because “ongoing personal development is a necessary requirement of any successful business ”.