THE traffic sub committee of Dublin City Council has turned downs a proposal to put a moratorium on the issue of new hackney licences, in the city. Dublin Corporation has been issuing around 30 a week in recent months. There are currently over 2,100 hackney licence holders.
The sub committee also turned down two other motions at its meeting yesterday morning that the issue of hackney licences should be referred to a yet to be established working group linking Dublin Corporation with Fingal, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and South Dublin councils and that 150 new taxi licences should be issued at a cost of £15,000 each.
The sub committee did decide to write to the Minister for the Environment asking that the regulations be changed to require identification on hackney cabs to stop illegal operators.
During a heated meeting, the sub committee's chairman, Mr Brendan Brady (FG) said he regretted the city council's "lethargy on the issue of licensing more taxis in Dublin. He warned of "potential chaos" if each local authority in the greater Dublin region were to set up its own taximeter area.
Last month Dun Laoghaire Rathdown council members said they would investigate the forming of a taxi meter area following the collapse of talks between the four Dublin local authorities.
Some Dublin councillors yesterday alleged that many of the new hackney licences were being "locked in drawers" rather than being put to use to serve the public.
Councillors also spoke of the impossibility of finding a taxi in the city at Christmas. Ms Carmencita Hederman (Ind) spoke of queues of nearly 100 people outside Heuston station at 11 a.m. Mr Christy Burke (SF) said there were queues up to a mile long at some ranks in the early morning.
Mr Derry O'Leary of Dublin Bus said his company's Nightlink service would be carrying 75,000 people on late night buses in the 25 days up to January 4th. He said there would be a guaranteed place for "every passenger who presents himself" for the hourly service between midnight and 3 a.m. on routes as far out as Maynooth. This would be done by putting on extra buses if necessary, he said.