Taxi drivers' protests to cause disruption

TWO PROTESTS by taxi drivers today are expected to cause disruption at Dublin airport in the morning and in Dublin city centre in the afternoon. At Dublin airport drivers who are members of Siptu will stage a protest between 7am and 11am, marking a resumption of such protests by the union.

Dublin city centre is expected to suffer severe disruption as up to 3,000 drivers, members of the organisation Taxi Drivers For Change, drive in convoy from two locations in the suburbs towards a rally at the Commission for Taxi Regulation in Fitzwilliam Square.

These drivers will set out in two convoys at 8am – one from the Liffey Valley shopping centre in Clondalkin and a second from the Airside retail park in Swords. They are expected to converge at the regulator’s office at about 2pm, where they will hold a brief rally.

Both protests are against what drivers say is an over-supply of taxis since deregulation of the industry. They are calling for a cap on the issuing of taxi licences, saying the market is saturated and it is now impossible to make a living as a taxi-driver.

Siptu taxi branch organiser Jerry Brennan said his members decided to resume protests at Dublin airport following a meeting with the taxi regulator, Kathleen Doyle, last Friday at which they were told there would be another round of consultations with drivers around the State. He said the recent Goodbody report on the industry, which concluded there was no need to put a cap on issuing licences, had “absolutely no credibility with those working in the industry”.

Today’s protest in the city centre will also be raising funds for the Irish Cancer Society’s Daffodil Day. This follows calls for the organisers to call off or postpone the protest as it clashed with the charity’s annual fundraising drive.