Taxi drivers to strike in anger over deregulation
Cab drivers in Dublin have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the strike which will represent the first joint industrial action by the three main taxi representative bodies, the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation (ITDF), the National Taxi Drivers Union (NTDU) and SIPTU.
Most of the capital’s 10,000 plate holders are due to withdraw all but emergency hospital services in Dublin for 24 hours starting at 4am on June 10.
Similar protests are unlikely be held in the other major cities, although taxi drivers from outside Dublin are expected to send representatives to a mass protest in the Phoenix Park.
Several thousand taxi drivers are planning to attend the rally at noon before proceeding in a convoy to the offices of Transport Minister Séamus Brennan. The three unions are due to meet later today to co-ordinate the demonstration in order to cause the minimum disruption to traffic in Dublin on the day of the protest.
NTDU spokesperson Tommy Gorman said taxi drivers felt they had no choice but to stage a strike because of the growing frustration and anger at the Government’s failure to appoint a full-time regulator.
In particular, he criticised Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for his failure to honour promises made when the industry was deregulated in November 2000.
“Absolutely nothing has been done since, even though we were promised a regulator with full statutory powers would be put in place,” Mr Gorman said.
Meanwhile, the Taxi Hardship Panel yesterday defended its report which recommended that taxi drivers and their widows who had suffered extreme financial hardship as a result of deregulation should receive up to a maximum of €15,000.
The panel has estimated that the cost to the State of the scheme would be €16m on the basis that not all of the 4,000 people who owned a taxi plate in November 2000 would be entitled to benefit.
The three main taxi unions and a group representing the families of taxi drivers, FAIR (Families Advocate Immediate Redress) as well as a delegation of the European Parliament have dismissed the proposed level of payments as inadequate and derisory.
Kevin Bonner of the Taxi Hardship Panel told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that it could not, under its terms of reference, provide compensation for the loss of value in licences.
