Sir, - The recent request by the taxi federation for a threefold increase for working at the millennium New Year shows once again how divorced from reality this sheltered bunch are. Once again the taxi-waiting population of Dublin ask when deregulation will arrive. When will the market economy that the rest of the private sector rises and falls by arrive in the taxi sector?
Oh, I know the arguments that will be trotted out. Taxi drivers claim that the burden of bringing us home should not be theirs alone. It's true that public transport should be improved at night but most European cities don't have an extensive public transport system at night, so why should Dublin? Anyway, if there are people out there willing to drive one home, why shouldn't they?
I know taxi drivers will next trot out images of drivers not knowing where they are going and of unsavoury characters plying their trade on an unsuspecting public. The truth is that a lot of the current regulated drivers do not know where they are going, often do not show up and could do with even a cursory knowledge of the rules of the road! Bring on deregulation! - Yours, etc.,
Barry Hazel, Grosvenor Court, Clontarf, Dublin 3.