Dublin taxis will be off the road for four hours today in protest at the corporation decisions regarding taxi plates and licence renewals.
The taxi drivers will stop work from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will march from Parnell Square to the City Hall, where councillors will be discussing a motion on the industry.
The drivers are objecting to an increase in the taxi licence renewal fee from £100 to £750 and to the issuing of 200 taxi licences at a cost of £25,000 each.
Mr John Ussher, president of the Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation, said the corporation saw the industry as a "soft target" for income - £5 million immediately from the sale of plates and a further £750,000 annually from renewal fees. This was being done to camouflage the corporation's failure to collect rent arrears and institute acceptable water charges.
Taxi drivers were angry that the corporation was asking them "to carry the financial can and that decisions were being taken with no reference to the views of the industry.
