New standards for the taxi industry will include a dress code for drivers as well as entry rules and vehicle standards, the Minister for Transport said yesterday.
Mr Brennan announced the appointment of Mr Jimmy Farrelly as interim taxi regulator and said he had asked him to make "early and firm" recommendations on a range of issues including a standard colour for taxis.
Mr Farrelly, a former secretary-general at the Department of the Environment said taxis were not "up to scratch" at the moment.
"I don't think any of us would disagree on that. It's a question of bringing qualitative standards and some element of uniformity in relation to standards," he said.
Mr Farrelly has been asked to recommend measures to reassure the public about their safety, following a recent number of high-profile incidents with taxi-drivers. Last year the man at the centre of the X case was jailed for 3½ years for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl who had hailed his taxi.
Mr Brennan said most taxi-drivers were professional people.
"We will tighten up the systems as much as we possibly can to make sure that bad apples are not in the system any more," he said.
He said "an absolute avalanche" of taxi licences had been given out in recent times. "Dublin in particular needs very urgent and special attention," he said.
"We need to raise the standards right across the board on a whole range of issues."
Mr Brennan said the permanent chair of the Commission for Taxi Regulation would be taking office before the end of the year after legislation had been passed.
Mr Farrelly said his appointment was strictly temporary and he would not be applying for the job of national taxi regulator.
Mr Brennan also announced the establishment of a taxi council which would advise him and the new Commission for Taxi Regulation.
The National Taxi-Drivers' Union welcomed the news and said the Minister had promised to address most of the areas the union had highlighted.
"We will be keeping the pressure on and we want to see fast progress with the small issues that can be implemented quickly," said Mr Vinnie Kearns, the NTDU vice-president.
"I'm in favour of any qualitative improvement once they don't wish our members to bear the full cost of any changes," he said.
"If the Government wants a quality service, then they have their part to play by removing VRT to give our members an incentive to upgrade."
Drivers would not have a problem with a dress code, as long as it was practical, he said.
The president of SIPTU, Mr Des Geraghty, welcomed the new appointment but said he was disappointed that the regulator would not have any powers to restrict the number of PSV licences issued.
Mr Denis Naughten, the Fine Gael transport spokesman, said the interim regulator should establish a 24-hour phone line for reporting customers' complaints.
