Taxi drivers demand moratorium on the issuing of new licences

THE NUMBER of taxis on Irish roads has “gone beyond the ridiculous”, the taxi industry has said.

Hundreds of taxi drivers staged demonstrations in Dublin city centre yesterday and handed in a petition to the Department of Transport calling for a moratorium on the number of licences being issued.

Taxi drivers claim that since deregulation in 2000 the number of taxis in Dublin alone has increased from about 2,000 to 25,000, making it impossible for the majority of them to earn a living. They also staged protests outside Dublin airport. Siptu taxi branch official Jerry Brennan said their original grievance about having no means to appeal decisions taken by the taxi regulator should now includes a call for a moratorium on taxi numbers.

He said the economic downturn has left many people who have been made redundant looking at getting into the taxi industry.

“I had a chap in with me on Saturday morning in the office. He told me he was in the labour exchange in Finglas because he can’t make a living taxiing and there were notices there that people should take up taxi driving as a career.

“Morally, something is very wrong,” Mr Brennan said.

Mr Brennan said drivers were protesting because, unlike virtually every other group in the workforce, they have no right of appeal from decisions by the regulator under the Taxi Regulation Act of 2003 and they have no access to the Rights Commissioner Service, the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court.

The number of taxis is currently being examined by AL Goodbody on behalf of the regulator and a report is expected in March.

A statement from the Commission for Taxi Regulation said the office had no powers over the number of taxis, which was a matter for the Minister for Transport and the Oireachtas.

“The taxi regulator is an industry regulator not a market regulator,” the statement read.

However, National Taxi Drivers’ Union president Tommy Gorman said the regulator Kathleen Doyle should “consider her position” because she had failed to advise the Minister for Transport that the market for taxis was becoming oversubscribed.

“We said to her 18 months ago, but she persisted in issuing so many taxi licences to the extent that there is no living in it for anybody anymore,” Mr Gorman said.