Sir, - I returned to this country at the outset of the present boom and was advised that I should seek employment as a taxi "cosy". I was told the job would be satisfying and well paid. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
Like other cosies and owner-drivers, I have been subject to groups of drunken and drugged-up members of the public queuing at grossly inadequate taxi ranks with no safety barriers or shelters. I have been subject to more than one assault, verbal abuse, vomiting, spitting, urinating, deliberate flatulence, refusal to pay, vandalism and general bad behaviour. In return for this I have made a very modest living, well below the average industrial wage.
I have also had to put up with the perception that all taxi-drivers are awash with money. The public, the political parties and particularly the Dublin Chamber of Commerce make no mention of the unbelievable overheads that cosy drivers have to pay weekly, on top of the personal cost they have to suffer. I have to work a 12-hour day and seven-day week to meet my overheads and extract a small living.
Now the Government has decided to double the size of the fleet, compensating existing licence holders with a second plate, but disregarding the cosies who now make up a majority of Dublin's taxi-drivers. As a result, driving a taxi will no longer be a viable proposition. Plate values, already falling, will drop dramatically and the public will suffer from a de-motivated driving force who will not be interested in giving quality service in return for a poor reward. Above all, the long-suffering cosy will eventually become extinct. Plate owners will drive their taxis only during daylight hours as it will no longer be cost-effective to employ a cosy.
Do those people in suits who sit cosily behind desks really think that another few thousand taxis will solve the problem? Surely the answer lies in public transport. Night travellers have to rely on a rail service that shuts down far too early, a totally inadequate night bus service - and a phantom Luas project that should gave been built by now. Of course we need more taxis to complement an integrated transport policy, but why should a privately owned fleet of taxis and hackneys be held responsible for the vast numbers of people trying to get home on a Friday or Saturday night? In most cases we do our very best to serve the public, but what about everyone else?
If we are going to have more taxis, the public will to pay, even in an atmosphere of open competition and deregulation. Already, the major taxi companies are having great difficulties in recruiting new drivers as the prospects of high earnings have become a myth. Fares will have to rise substantially, along with overheads. Because of local government ineptitude, the public will have to dig deep into their pockets while queuing in the rain with no adequate shelter. Meanwhile, deregulation will attract all kinds of misfits to the industry, further worsening taxi-drivers' already poor image. So for once, will the mithering, complaining officials who take glee in annual taxi-bashing give us a break and try and come up with a realistic and holistic approach to our city's chronic transport problems? - Yours, etc.
David Peter Fine, Glasnevin Avenue, Glasnevin North, Dublin 11.