Sir, – The suggestion that the Minister for Transport would look into motor insurance for publicans to drive impaired customers home is unwise, to say the least (“Publicans could drive drinkers home under new proposals from Ross”, News, October 24th).
The theory put out by rural politicians that social life will collapse if people cannot drink and drive is an insult to their constituents.
Rural dwellers have no greater a dependency on alcohol than any other group, and are just as capable of drinking tea, coffee, water or soft drinks as anyone else.
To suggest that rural people need alcohol to give them the courage to behave sociably is nonsense and is unfair to the people of Ireland.
No special concessions should be made for rural people.
They are a mentally strong, confident group and are as capable as anyone else of living life to the full without the prop of alcohol. – Yours, etc,
AOIFE LORD,
Tankardstown,
Co Meath.
Sir, – People have no problem getting a taxi but they do have a problem paying for it.
They would prefer to buy one last drink rather than pay for their taxi home, and this is the cause of an awful lot of drink-driving.
I don’t think that the encouragement of designated drivers will work that well either, as from what I observe at night, people are travelling home with drivers who have been out drinking the whole night.
About 60 per cent of my own business would be night trade. It is very unfair to the licensed, regulated and trained taxi and hackney drivers that there would be any possibility of people outside of the industry being given an incentive or being paid to do the work we carry out.
We have invested our time, money and effort into setting up and running our business. We work unsociable hours to provide a service which is needed for our customers. We are governed by very strict regulations to which we have to adhere to continue in business. To hand these opportunities to unlicensed members of the public would be very unfair and would puts us on a very uneven playing field.
Would the Minister not be better employed incentivising the existing regulated taxi and hackney drivers in rural areas?
I understand the Minister’s position. He is trying to save the fabric of rural Ireland, but there is no point in trying to save one lot by sacrificing another. – Yours, etc,
FRANCIS McKEON,
Carickbawn,
Drumshanbo,
Co Leitrim.