Sir, - Mr Emmet Stokes maintained (June 24th) that taxi drivers enjoy the protection of Government regarding limitation of licences, and that other workers do not have the same protection afforded to them. All business is regulated by Government to some degree. Take the case of the farming community. If farmers suffer any loss, real, imagined, or exaggerated, they receive compensation in large measure. Furthermore, most of Ireland's current economic prosperity is due to multinational investment which in turn is due to Government tax incentives, and nothing else. It is clear, therefore, that Government action or inaction can make or break any business venture.
It would be foolhardy to deregulate the taxi service any further. It has effectively been deregulated already with the issuing of some 3,000 hackney licences in Dublin city in the past few years. This has increased Dublin's taxi capacity by 150 per cent. Yet people complain about the lack of taxis, particularly late at night. These delays usually occur at weekends when at the same time pubs and restaurants close their doors and Dublin's bus drivers call it a day and head for home leaving their customers high, and not so dry, waiting in line in the city centre for taxis. Suddenly, everyone starts to complain about the lack of taxis. Dublin Bus is nowhere to be seen, apart from the expensive night-link service, which is infrequent and may leave its passengers with long walks to their homes on arrival in the suburbs. Yet, Dublin Bus is a protected Government monopoly and will survive indefinitely due to taxpayers' subsidies, unlike taxis which must make profit in order to continue to service the disgruntled public.
The taxi/hackney service provides for its customers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, unlike any others, apart from the emergency services. Drivers do this, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because they have to pay extremely high bills. Delays are due to the closing down of all other transport systems at 11.30 p.m. and to the huge volume of traffic, both private and commercial, in the city during the day. Solve these two problems and few people will complain about the taxi service. - Yours, etc., Peter Martin,
Swords, Co Dublin.