Today's taxi strike is giving the industry a bad name, the State's taxi regulator warned. Some 12,000 taxis staged a 24-hour nationwide stoppage for the second time in a fortnight.
The protest, which continues until 5am tomorrow, is against new fare structures which will scrap surcharges for luggage and picking up customers at Dublin airport.
But the Government's taxi regulator Ger Deering said today's strike would achieve nothing "To take your grievances out on your customers is certainly not good for business," he said.
"It is discommoding the public and it is also giving the industry a bad reputation." The three main drivers' unions - the Taxi Drivers' Federation, the National Taxi Drivers Union (NTDU) and SIPTU - organised today's action. They claim drivers will face losses of €4,500 a year when the new fares are introduced in September.
NTDU president Tommy Gorman admitted that talks with Mr Deering earlier this week failed but called for more negotiations. "There was no sign of compromise, discretion, negotiation within this man," he said.
"But we would be happy to go back to the table to debate this further." About 12,000 of the state's 17,000 taxis were involved in the first day of action on July 17th.
The strike hit the public most in Dublin, where some 10,000 cabs were off the road. Business and employers' group IBEC strongly condemned today's protest and said it would inconvenience and antagonise the travelling public and businesses that rely on a taxi service.
Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Dublin and Cork airports. A couple returning from holiday in the US said: "We have six bags and are extremely tired. We just wanted to be dropped to our doorstep but that's not possible now."
Businesspeople travelling from abroad were also annoyed that they had no prior notice of the taxi strike. Taxi unions are organising a national meeting of drivers in Dublin later this month to discuss their options, which include further strikes or legal action.
One striking taxi driver today said at a Dublin rank: "If we just give in to this, another new rule or regulation will come out tomorrow or next week. "We don't want to be on strike — nobody wants to be here."
Taxis operated in Galway to accommodate racegoers attending the city's annual seven-day race meeting.