Madam, - The analysis of deregulation in Dublin by Goodbody Economic Consultants found over two-thirds of people believe that taxi deregulation was a good thing with only 14 per cent disagreeing. During the day 48 per cent of passengers at taxi ranks now wait less than 5 minutes compared to only 25 per cent in 1997. After midnight those waiting for over 30 minutes have fallen from 43 per cent of passengers in 1997 to 6 per cent in 2001. There are safety benefits from reducing the lengthy queues and walking trips caused by the shortage of taxis before deregulation.
In the 1970s the taxi licence-holders used the same methods as on Thursday last to secure a ban on new entrants - a combination of street demonstrations, and complaints about vehicles and their drivers. The result of that regulatory capture was a ban on new entrants, taxi licences acquiring a transfer value of £80,000, and long queueing times. The new market entry of 6,500 taxi drivers in two years reflects the fact that the OECD's fastest growing economy banned new entrants to the taxi sector for over two decades. It does not indicate that standards have fallen or that criminals have entered the business.
The 2000 taxi deregulation of market entry was accompanied by service improvements such as NCT testing of vehicles to protect standards and the compulsory issue of printed receipts to protect against overcharging. The Oscar Faber report found that the pre-deregulation taxi fleet contained many old vehicles and the Goodbody report found high standards in the deregulated fleet.
The Carriage Office has reported that eleven taxi licences were revoked on legal grounds in recent years out of over 9,000. This rate is 1.2 per thousand and compares with the 58 per thousand crime rate in the Dublin Metropolitan area. Two incidents which were highly publicised in the last week occurred before deregulation and cannot be blamed on the new entrants.
The High Court judgment deregulating taxis found that the State cannot prevent persons from access to an occupation for which they have the necessary skills. There are four High Court judgments that the State has no duty to support any resale price for taxi licences held by incumbents. Ireland's open economy policies since 1987 have added 700,000 extra jobs in this economy and taxi deregulation is part of this policy.
The opposition of the previous licence holders to deregulation is entirely predictable as is their quest for ways to re-regulate the sector. For the rest of us the success of taxi deregulation for society as a whole is well worth celebrating and extending to other sectors. - Yours, etc.,
Dr SEAN D. BARRETT, Department of Economics, Trinity College, Dublin 2.