€20m taxi driver fund speculation, say leaders

TAXI driver leaders yesterday described as speculation reports that a €20m fund was being made available to members who lost large sums of money because of deregulation.

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan is expected to meet leaders of taxidrivers’ unions within the next two weeks concerning the report of the three-member Hardship Committee set up to examine the taxidrivers’ plea for compensation.

Deregulation was introduced two years and according to SIPTU Taxi official Jerry Brennan the number of taxi license plates jumped from 3,974 nationally to more than 9,000 in Dublin alone.