Taxi-drivers who are members of SIPTU will be withdrawing their services at Dublin Airport for a number of hours next Monday and Tuesday.
The drivers are demanding that the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, suspend the issuing of new Public Service Vehicle licences until assurances can be given to drivers that they can make a viable living and until confidence returns to the public that they will have a safe form of transport.
The protest will take place on Monday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. and on Tuesday between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. There will be a further stoppage on Monday, February 10th, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Other taxi organisations are not involved in the action.
Mr Jerry Brennan, of the SIPTU branch which represents the drivers, said that their AGM had been called a week ago, prior to certain criminal events concerning taxi-drivers.
An extraordinary general meeting had been held on Tuesday, attended by 500 members. "They decided they were sick and tired of the false promises and that nothing is being done to deal with the mess after deregulation," Mr Brennan said.
"We're very concerned about the reception by the public regarding the safety of the industry. All criminal incidents cast a slur on the integrity of all the honest taxi-drivers," he added.
The Minister for Transport had said that he would appoint a non-statutory regulator, which meant that whoever was appointed would have no statutory powers, Mr Brennan said.
Drivers were adamant that they would not be using their vehicles in the protest, so there would be no disruption and no blockade. There would be a protest at the roundabout at Dublin Airport.
A spokesman for the Minister for Transport said: "The Minister has made clear that he is available to meet taxi-drivers at any time. No meeting has been requested by SIPTU taxi-drivers."
The spokesman said that the Minister was still committed to appointing a regulator by the end of February. He had proposed the regulator on a non-statutory basis as the appointment of a statutory regulator required legislation. "The Minister proposed the appointment on a non-statutory basis at first, so that work could get started while the legislation goes through. A statutory legislator should be in place later this year."
Regarding capping licences, there was no way that the Minister could do this after the High Court ruling that it was illegal.
Yesterday, spokesmen for the National Taxi-Drivers' Union and the Irish Taxi-Drivers' Federation said that they knew nothing of the SIPTU action.
Mr Tommy Gorman, of the NTDU, said that they would be meeting the Minister, Mr Brennan, next week, and they had also requested a meeting with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, about the issues concerning safety.