We used to have to borrow wheels and other parts of cars to keep one on the road - you wouldn't have survived without the help of your colleagues

Raising a family on a taxi driver's wages in the 1970s and 1980s wasn't easy, according to Irish Taxi Federation president John Ussher. Now, he says, hard times are here again.

John had already been driving a taxi for five years when his son Paul, now 30, was born. His wife Mona gave birth to daughter Elizabeth five years later. Supporting a wife and a young family in the 1970s was, he says, very tough: "I remember well that, if children were sick, to go and get a prescription was very expensive. Sometimes you would have to borrow money for medication for your children, which was always an embarrassment."

There was, however, a great generosity and comradeship among drivers: "We used to have to borrow wheels and other parts of cars to keep one on the road. You wouldn't have survived without the help of your colleagues."

Before 1978 there was no cap on the number of licences that were issued. Competition was strong and money was tight. John recalls very little nightlife in Dublin in the 1970s, yet he still spent nights away from his family earning what he could: "At 1 o'clock in the morning Dublin was a ghost town. The only two late night venues were the Arcadia in Bray and the Palm Beach in Portmarnock. We used to wait in town for the buses to come back from those venues to try and get a last fare."

John's days were long. He had to be available for work at least 14 hours a day to earn a week's wages. He was on the taxi federation committee for 11 years before he reached the rank of president in 1981, when both his children were still in primary school. As his responsibilities grew, he was able to spend less time at home.

"My son used to play football - indeed he played for Ireland as a schoolboy. My only social life was to go to see him play. I'd always try to go to all his matches. I'd have to go back to work immediately afterwards but my target was to get to the game."

Many of John's colleagues had to leave the business because they couldn't support their families on the money the taxi brought in: "It happened on a regular basis that drivers would come in and find they couldn't survive and they would leave the business."

The industry was regulated in 1978 and, says John, things got "a little better". Now however, he believes that taxi drivers have been put "back to the era before 1978" and their families will find it harder to make ends meet than ever before. Paul is now a driver himself and John is somewhat relieved that he doesn't yet have a family to support.

"There's a lot of young people out there with big mortgages and young families who are going to find the years ahead very, very difficult. I addressed a meeting of 2,000 taxi drivers and I think half of them will have no alternative but to leave the business, because they will not be able to meet their financial commitments and their families' needs."

John feels that the current difficulties in the industry have put a strain on his home life: "I don't see much of home at the moment - I'm at meetings all the time, not only in Dublin but around the country." His time, he says, seems to be swallowed up with talking to taxi drivers and politicians: "In the current climate, and until this is resolved, I don't think I'll have very much home life."

However, he says, his family have been of vital support to him during the dispute. "My wife has been a great support to me - there's no doubt in the world about that - and Paul and Elizabeth are two great children. They do anything they can to relieve the pressure on me."