Fahey rejects findings of report on taxi industry

COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT:THE RECENT Goodbody review of the taxi industry was rejected by members of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport yesterday, with committee chairman Frank Fahey telling the report's author to "go away and rewrite it".

Mr Fahey said he did not accept the “methodology” of the report which found that deregulation and market forces were achieving a balance between supply, demand and economic viability in the industry.

Nor did he believe the report had properly addressed critical issues including taxi sharing by drivers, fraudulent licences, the livelihoods of drivers and the issue of a moratorium on new licences.

Mr Fahey expressed particular concern that the report’s author Brendan Feeney was unable to tell the committee how many public service vehicle licences had been issued, but, he said, was able to draw conclusions including conclusions about drivers’ incomes.

“One of the problems is the huge numbers of drivers driving one car and no proper control,” he said. He maintained illegality was “almost impossible to detect” and told Mr Feeney: “I cannot accept the conclusions.”

He said two years’ work on the part of the committee were at variance with the Goodbody report. Mr Fahey said the committee now saw a situation “where people in the taxi industry cannot earn even a minimum wage”, which was preventing the introduction of the higher standards required by all.

To this end the committee had supported a call for a moratorium on the issuing of new licences.

Addressing taxi regulator Kathleen Doyle, Mr Fahey expressed doubt she was given the resources to regulate the industry properly. He said there were just nine enforcement officers available and when one arrived at taxi ranks in Galway, “about half the taxis disappear from the rank”.

Labour TD Tommy Broughan said “we don’t have regulation of any kind” and added “nine people to regulate 30,000 [taxi drivers]. It seems ridiculous.”