THE LABOUR Party is seeking a moratorium of up to two years on the issuing of new taxi licences and the return of regulation of numbers in the industry in a document to be published today.
Hailing a New Taxi Service: A High Quality and Fair Taxi Industry for Allwill be submitted to the Taxi Regulator Kathleen Doyle as Labour's response to the Goodbody economic review of the industry which recommended no freeze on taxi numbers.
The document sets out a series of proposals which the party’s transport spokesman Tommy Broughan said are essential to the recovery of the industry.
“We believe that the current system of regulation is not working, either in the interests of customers or drivers. Urgent reform is needed so that a high quality services can be developed and maintained.”
Since the deregulation of the industry in 2000, which has resulted in a more than ten-fold increase in the number of taxis, both standards and earnings had deteriorated, Mr Broughan said.
“Under the current regulatory system there are only nine enforcement officers to inspect a fleet of 27,000 vehicles and around 47,000 drivers. That simply isn’t enough.” There should be at least 50 officers, he said.
Labour is seeking new quality standards for the industry and better control of the licensing system. The issuing of licences to drivers was to have been taken over by Ms Doyle from the Garda Carriage Office last year, but never happened because of a lack of funding.
“The regulator appeared before the [Oireachtas] transport committee and told us herself that she didn’t have the resources,” Mr Broughan said.
Under Labour’s proposals drivers would have a full licence for three years before they could apply for a taxi licence. The would also have to sit a test to prove their familiarity with the licensed area, similar to the “knowledge” test in London.
The party was not seeking a return to pre-deregulation where taxis were always in short supply and licences changed hands for tens of thousands of pounds. However, Mr Broughan said some form of regulation was necessary.
“Many other countries use a market demand mechanism to regulate the number of taxis. At the moment it is a free for all and we need to get back to a well regulated market. A moratorium of one to two years is probably what’s needed to put that in place.”
Meanwhile, Dublin City Council is to designate 15 new taxi ranks to accommodate the growing numbers of vehicles.
New Dublin ranks
Dublin 1: Commons Street, Mayor Street Lower
Dublin 2: St Stephen's Green North
Dublin 8: Parkgate Street
Dublin 9: Shangan Road (two ranks)
NIGHT-TIME ONLY RANKS:
Dublin 1: Amiens Street (two ranks), Sackville Place (two ranks), Talbot Place.
Dublin 2: Baggot Street Upper, Baggot Street Lower, Harcourt Street, Wellington Quay.
