Racial tension at the taxi rank

THE TAXI industry in Ireland has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. According to figures from the Commission for Taxi Regulation, there were 4,218 taxis in 2000, before deregulation, and on January 1st this year there were 21,139. The face of the industry has also changed, becoming multi-ethnic in the intervening years, writes FIONA GARTLAND

During the boom years, although there were tensions as numbers grew and as more nationalities entered the industry, there was enough work to provide a living for most. However, the recession has seen a sharp drop in business for taxi drivers, competition for work has intensified and racial tensions are on the rise.

Anecdotes about African drivers are widespread within the industry (I know – my husband drives a taxi): the driver who was seen abandoning the taxi at a Garda checkpoint; the driver who needed directions from his passenger to get from Abbey Street to St Stephen’s Green; the driver who took the long way from Dublin airport to Drumcondra; the driver who did not have any identification displayed on his dashboard.

Some Irish-born drivers also complain that newcomers break long-established unwritten protocols, which include not overtaking another taxi to pick up a fare or to try to get ahead on a rank, and leaving a fare to the taxi behind you if it has just let you out of a side road.

The taxi regulator has received very few complaints of discrimination from drivers. But what is the reality in the capital for black African taxi drivers, and do Irish-born drivers feel there is racism in the industry? Kuria Kaguta from Kenya has worked as a taxi driver in Dublin for four years. He has not experienced difficulties everywhere, but there are some taxi ranks, including the one on O’Connell Street, that he prefers to avoid.

“On some ranks the queuing system is different; you have to ask who is last. Sometimes no one will tell you; no one talks to you,” he says. He has queued at a rank and, though no one addressed him, other drivers have stood close to his car and made it clear he was not welcome. “They don’t talk to you, but you can hear them saying ‘this is not a rank for blacks’,” he says. “I don’t bother going there any more.”

Other foreign drivers have complained about having cigarette smoke blown in their faces or of being referred to as “the nigger”.

Some potential passengers may also pass down a rank until they see a white face, or wait for him to drive away before approaching the rank. “Some drivers will say to you, ‘I’m sorry; he wants to get into my car,’ and I say ‘that’s okay’; there is no point in forcing a customer to get into a car when he or she doesn’t want to. Other drivers just take the passenger and drive away.”

He has been hassled by some passengers, and feels some try to test him by giving only their street address and refusing to tell him in what area they live. “It is as if they are waiting for me to get lost.”

Asked about overtaking to get to a fare, he says that before deregulation, there was no need for competition because there was always another job around the corner. But he also accepts there are cultural differences. “We are from third-world countries where it is the survival of the fittest – so maybe we did bring in some competition. But when it came to 10,000 taxis in Dublin, that is when it became real competition. Now on the N11 at Donnybrook, an Irish taxi driver overtakes me and picks up a fare; it is happening to everyone.”

Tension between black and white is growing and will always be there, he says. Drivers have been angry towards all new drivers since deregulation, but it is easiest to focus that anger at foreigners, because they are the smallest community.

“If today I go to a taxi rank myself and I pass the queue there and I take a passenger, that story will spread all over Dublin: ‘a black taxi driver picked up a fare illegally and left us’. So that would bring attention to all the black taxi drivers, whereas I am the one who did that. When an Irish taxi driver does something, the story won’t go anywhere, because they are the majority.” It is hard to generalise about Irish taxi drivers, he says, but very easy to generalise about foreigners.

EDWARD MANGAN HASworked in the taxi industry "for many years". He regularly operates out of the O'Connell Street rank. He says that drivers are frustrated and angry about the way the industry has gone, and that they are concerned at the number of illegal drivers they believe to be operating without licences. "In the next two or three years I'd be shocked if there is not people physically assaulted on the ranks, there's so much frustration."

He thinks the “racism” issue is nonsense. “It is the easiest thing in the world to say you are a racist, but if you see a fella come on to the rank and he doesn’t have his licence, are you not supposed to get annoyed? If he cuts in ahead of you, are you not supposed to be angry?”

He denies that drivers would refuse to “give last” to a legitimate black African driver, but believes some non-legitimate drivers avoid O’Connell Street because it is often checked by gardaí. “You won’t get last if you just sit in your car. No one goes to give you last – you have to get out of your car and ask for it,” he says.

It is too easy to rent a taxi, complete with roof sign, without having to show a public service vehicle licence, he says. Or one legitimate driver gets a taxi and then lends it to his friends along with his photo ID. “It is hard to say this and not sound racist, but the majority of coloured people look the same to our eye, so it’s easy for them to share licences,” he says.

He claims this opens up the industry to people who have not been checked for criminal records. “It is only a matter of time before women are sexually assaulted.” Enforcement, when such drivers are caught, is too weak, he says. “If they catch you on the rank with a tricolour, they’ll fine you €250, but if you are driving without a licence they’ll tell you to put your roof sign in your boot and go home. Sure they just drive around the corner and put the sign back up again.”

He repeats some of the anecdotes about black African drivers prevalent in the industry, and is critical of the taxi regulator, Kathleen Doyle.

DOYLE HERSELF POINTSout that the Commission for Taxi Regulation has recently rolled out a new driver-skills development programme, which includes a module on diversity. All new applicants and, shortly, all existing drivers on renewal of their licence will have to pass a test on this programme.

“While the commission must ultimately urge each individual to take responsibility for their own views and actions, it takes any incidences of discrimination from drivers or passengers extremely seriously and refers all such matters to the Garda or Equality Authority,” says Doyle. “It has, however, had very few complaints of this nature.”

She also says that both the commission and gardaí actively check for infringements of the regulations. Some 31 drivers were prosecuted for not having a valid public service vehicle driver licence in 2009; the majority, however, related to lapsed licences. “Neither agency has found a high evidence of illegal operators,” she says.

PHILIP WATT,former director of the now defunct National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism and contributor to the Government's National Action Plan Against Racism, believes racism classically manifests itself at times of recession. When the committee was in operation, 10 per cent of the complaints it received related to the taxi industry. The key issues centred on resentment towards foreign drivers and those perceived to be foreign. He says the committee raised the issues with the taxi regulator on a number of occasions, and offered to meet her, but no formal meeting took place.

The taxi industry could have followed the Dublin Bus model, he says. The company introduced an integration training programme in advance of staffing new drivers, and as a result racial incidents have been minimised. People can hold negative views, but their behaviour can be modified, he says.

He believes that if racial tension isn’t addressed in the industry, the future could be problematic. “The warning flags are being raised at the minute, and if there is nothing done about it soon there will be trouble.”