Compensation for taxidrivers who suffer financial losses as a result of deregulation has been ruled out by the Minister responsible, Mr Robert Molloy.
"That's not on the agenda at all," Mr Molloy, the Minister of State for the Environment told The Irish Times last night. He added that there was no provision whereby the State was obliged to compensate existing licence holders.
He said his primary concern was to put the regulations in place so the new taxis could be on the streets as quickly as possible.
However, sources close to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said he believed quality controls could be put in place to restrict entry, so the drivers would not then need to be compensated. They said he was anxious to ensure that when deregulation was brought in it would not result in a free-for-all in the industry. The Government partners have been at odds over the taxi issue since coming into office, with the PDs advocating deregulation and Fianna Fail, particularly Mr Ahern, markedly reluctant to go down that road.
The president of the Taxi Drivers' Federation, Mr John Ussher, said if deregulation was brought in taxi-drivers would have to be fully compensated for what they paid for their licences.
Mr Ussher, who represents 1,500 of the city's 2,700 drivers, said he had requested an immediate meeting with Mr Molloy to discuss the proposed changes.
Asked what action taxi-drivers would take if the deregulation goes ahead Mr Ussher replied: "We will be ruling nothing out if he deregulates. We have received many suggestions from our members as to what form any proposed action might take."
Mr Ussher said the taxi-drivers who stopped taking fares on Friday morning had misread the report in that morning's Irish Times and thought the orders had been already signed for deregulation. "You saw what action they took and that's an indication of what would happen if deregulation is brought in," he said.
The Fine Gael spokeswoman on transport, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said a Dublin Corporation study had shown that someone who bought a taxi licence for £80,000 could pay the loan back in five years, while earning an average industrial wage.
"I don't know of any other sector where people are compensated for loss of earnings where market conditions have changed. I wouldn't under any circumstances support a blanket compensation scheme," she said.