The findings of a report by the taxi hardship panel have been described as an insult and a disgrace by taxi-drivers.
The panel was set up by the Government in February to assess the hardship suffered by drivers due to the deregulation of their trade two years ago. It is understood that about €15 million would be required to compensate the cases highlighted in the report.
The report refers to the plight of widows, people who had taken out large loans to buy licences, older people and those in ill health.
It suggests that compensation be paid only to genuine hardship cases, rather than spreading the payments throughout the sector. Of the 4,000 taxi-drivers working when deregulation was introduced in November 2000, about 2,000 applied to the taxi hardship panel for compensation.
Mr Vincent Kearns of the National Taxi Drivers' Union criticised the findings. "It's an insult, after all the effort we put into it. They are talking about €15 million yet taxi-drivers accumulated losses of £315 million when deregulation was brought in overnight. It's a disgrace." The Government had earned €50 million on the sale of new taxi licences since deregulation, so that should be used to compensate drivers, he said.
If the panel's recommendations were accepted by the Government, the most extreme hardship cases would only receive €15,000, he said. That was of no use to a widow who saw the value of her late husband's taxi licence plummet from £63,000 to €4,000.
He said the Government's "bungling" of the deregulation issue had forced hundreds of taxi- drivers to take their cases to court. Many of these cases are expected to appear in court early next year.
Speaking on RTÉ yesterday, SIPTU's Mr Gerry Brennan said strike action by drivers was "a very strong possibility". However, as taxi numbers have more than doubled since deregulation, new drivers are unlikely to protest about the effects of deregulation.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, will bring the panel's report before the Dáil within weeks. If approved, a mechanism will then be set up to facilitate the payment of compensation.
Mr Brennan is also expected to announce the establishment of a taxi regulator within the next week or so. The regulator would be the central authority for taxi issues but gardaí would still vet prospective drivers.
Between September 2001 and 2002, the Carriage Office received 502 complaints about taxi-drivers. According to a Garda spokeswoman, a large number related to overcharging while others related to discourtesy. Drivers were prosecuted in 21 cases and cautioned in 158. The spokeswoman said the increase was in line with the increase in the number of drivers.
