Taxi families tell EU of plight after deregulation
FAIR, the group representing families of the affected taxi drivers, has taken their case to Brussels in the hope of forcing the Irish Government to compensate them for their losses.
They told the committee yesterday that at least two taxi drivers a week have to have their mortgages rescheduled because of the dramatic drop in incomes as a result of the trebling of taxi numbers in Dublin.
And almost a third of taxi drivers are having problems paying their loans and mortgages according to a study carried out for the National Taxi Drivers Union.
The committee heard a litany of hardship cases including:
A 39-year-old Ennis man who paid the highest amount for a taxi licence - €152,368 - and who suffered a heart attack last Christmas, possibly because of the stress.
A couple in their early 30s who bought an existing licence in 1999 because they could not buy a licence from the government. They have two young children and are facing repaying the licence loan for a further 18 years.
A couple in their 50s who bought their licence on 29 October, 1999, with a loan of €96,000. Their home is now threatened because they have fallen into arrears. They would have bought a £5,000 licence, had they had the choice.
A widow whose children had to pay probate tax on the market value of the taxi licence.
a girl whose father left her his taxi licence when he died and left her sister a property worth the same amount. She had to pay probate tax on the €90,000 market value of the licence in June 2001 even thought that licence is now worth £4,900.
Cathy Darling of FAIR told the committee a Government body is expected to recommend payments of about €3,000 per person - a total cost to the state of €15m.
"They have already taken in about 50m on selling the new taxi licences. They should at least spend this amount alleviating our hardship."
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