Govt urged to protect safety of taxi passengers

The Government is under increased pressure today to ensure that people granted taxi licences pose no threat to the public.

Yesterday, the man at the centre of the X-case (which happened 10 years ago) was jailed for three and a half years for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in his taxi.

The 52-year-old man had successfully acquired a taxi licence after he was convicted of raping the 14-year-old girl involved in the X-case.

Gardai have confirmed that they were in the process of revoking his licence when the attack on his second victim occurred more than two years ago.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, later said government proposals to appoint a regulator for the taxi industry will deal with questions raised by yesterday’s case.

Mr Ahern stopped short of saying he supports a ban on sex offenders becoming taxi drivers, adding that such a decision should be in the hands of a regulator.

"We strongly support a regulator and I think in the detail of that regulation these issues should be dealt with," he said.

"The whole idea of regulation is that there’s rules, there’s codes of practice and there’s terms under which people can get licences."