Taxi customers face possible disruption at Dublin airport tomorrow morning as drivers stage a protest over the lack of appeals process with the Taxi Regulator and the number of taxi licences being issued.
Siptu taxi driver are to hold the protest at the main airport roundabout between 7 and 11am. The protest is part of a campaign aimed at establishing an independent board where drivers can appeal decisions by the Taxi Regulator.
But Siptu Branch Organiser Jerry Brennan told The Irish Timestoday the union was also seeking a moratorium on taxi licences.
“It is not our intention to cause disruption to anybody. This is about taxi drivers’ rights,” said Mr Brennan.
“We are in a situation where every industry in the country is laying people off and Commission for Taxi Regulation is issuing taxi licences. There is something morally wrong here.”
Mr Brennan said the regulator was “enticing people into the industry” and that the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey was resisting the introduction of a moratorium.
“It’s time to stop dancing around the trees. The Minister knows what the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport wants, and he knows what we want,” Mr Brennan added.
As well as the issue of taxi licence number, the Siptu drivers are also concerned that they have no institutional means of addressing grievances. "We are protesting tomorrow because, unlike virtually every other group in the workforce, Taxi Drivers have no right of appeal from decisions by the Regulator under the Taxi Regulation Act of 2003”, Mr Brennan added.
“”While we welcome the interest of the Committee it appears that there will be no change in Government policy. This leaves our members in the position that, unlike other workers, they have no access to the Rights Commissioner Service, the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court.”
However, Senator Paschal Donohoe, Fine Gael's Seanad transport spokesman, called for the protest to be called off ahead of a report on the viability of the taxi industry.
"A disruptive protest will lose the sympathy of the very people whose support the taxi drivers need.
"The taxi unions and representatives have been very successful in identifying issues that need to be addressed," he added.
