Sir, - It is an appalling injustice that ordinary working people who have put their homes up for loans to buy licences will now face financial ruin. My father is a taxi-driver in Waterford who has recently put the house up as collateral against a loan of £80,000 for a taxi-plate after many years of driving for other owners.
The tax relief proposed by the Minister may help to bring my father's earnings closer to those of someone who has perhaps less than a tenth the financial burden to bear weekly; but it will not compensate for the fact that he is left with something worthless at the end. He is now paying back about £100,000, including interest, while the man who sold him the plate can buy another one for £5000. This is clearly wrong. My father is an honest man who has worked harder than most all his life.
There is a need for a better taxi service, but to suggest that this Bill will encourage that is an indication of the limited capacity of the Minister to see reason. What will happen is that the people who have been this industry for years will be forced out and will lose their homes as well as their investment. Most taxi-drivers don't have a pension; the value of their plate is their retirement fund and their legacy to their children. I would suggest that the Minister should deduct the licence fee of £5000 from whatever the existing plate-owners owe on their plates and settle the rest. This would ensures that the all-new taxi industry would begin with everyone on a level playing field. The State coffers can more than bear it. If this does not happen, protesting drivers will ensure that there will be chaos on the streets this Christmas.
I would also like to remind the Minister that the taxi-drivers and their extended families may make up more than 10,000 votes in the next election and the Minister can be assured that these votes will be cast against his party. I will personally organise the campaign to ensure this happens. - Yours, etc.,
David Quigley, Brandon Way, Waterford.