Taxi drivers in the centre of Dublin yesterday were disgruntled by the Government's deregulation plans, which will drive down the value of their licences and could mean 700 more taxis vying with them on the streets before Christmas.
Mr James O'Shea, who was eating lunch in his parked RadioLink car at the Foster Place feeder rank for College Green, said the taxi business was being "scapegoated" because of the poor public transport system.
Mr O'Shea agreed more taxis were needed, but said the Government's proposals were not the way to go about it.
"You won't need a public service vehicle licence which includes a test of knowledge of Dublin, so you'll get a lot of people coming in that won't know their way around and people will get annoyed with them," he said. Mr O'Shea agreed many members of the public had little sympathy for taxi-drivers' current plight. "When you are dealing with the public you know that you can't keep them happy all the time," he added.
Another driver who was waiting for a customer said taxi-drivers were entitled to seek to protect their own interests. "Taxi-drivers will suffer because their licences, which is their asset, will be lost if they deregulate," he said. "If you paid £50,000 to £80,000 for it five years ago, its value will be gone. If you had a shop business which collapsed, then at least you would be able to sell the shop." However, taxi customers joining queues yesterday afternoon largely welcomed the deregulation. Aoife, a teacher from south Co Dublin, at the rank on College Green, lamented the fact there are 15,000 taxis in Madrid, while Dublin only has no more than 2,700 licences.
She said she would welcome any measures "that would get me home quicker than I get home these days".
As for the taxi-drivers' complaints that the move will devalue their licences bought for five-figure sums in the past years, Aoife replied: "I suppose they are only protecting their interests."
Further down the queue, Nena Talvitie, who is from Finland and has lived in Ireland for a year, said the taxi situation in Dublin was worse than anywhere in the world. She was pleased to hear there could soon be a boost in taxi numbers.
"It's awful, especially at the weekend. If you are coming out from a club you could be queuing for two to three hours. Helsinki has trains and underground and buses that go through the night and it has fewer people than Dublin," she said.