Queues formed at city-centre taxi ranks in Dublin last night immediately after taxi-drivers suspended their 17-day strike action.
At 7 p.m. a driver who said he had voted against the return to work picked up his first fare on Aston Quay. He said the drivers had been "robbed" by suspending their strike action.
People were relieved that SIPTU drivers had followed the lead of the two main taxi unions yesterday by agreeing to return to work by a 52-48 per cent majority.
"I'm glad they've come to their senses. It was foolish all round, them losing money and us stranded", said Ms Brigid McEntee, from Coolock, who joined the end of the queue of 19 people on College Green shortly after 7 p.m.
A driver who pulled in at the rank said he was glad to be back at work. "But I've been disappointed by the way we've been portrayed in the media", he said. "Most of us aren't like that. There's the few hotheads, but you'll always get them."
At St Stephen's Green, more than 30 people were queueing in the blustery conditions, but taxis were arriving at regular intervals.
Drivers who pulled in at the rank were upbeat. "I reckon they'll stop it [deregulation]", said Jack McCormack of the union's forthcoming judicial review of the Government's decision to lift the cap on the number of taxi licences.
Two operators representing about 200 owners of taxi plates in Cork and Mallow were granted leave yesterday to take a legal challenge to the proposal to deregulate the taxi industry.
But Mr Justice McKechnie refused to grant an injunction preventing Cork Corporation and Mallow UDC from taking further steps to bring into effect the deregulation plan, contained in Statutory Instrument 367 of 2000.
The judge heard that there were already 216 licensed taxi plates in Cork city and that, since the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Robert Molloy, introduced SI 367, another 238 licences had been conditionally offered by Cork Corporation.