PUTTING A cap on the number of taxis penalises consumers and would be an “extremely difficult and pointless task”, the chairman of the Competition Authority has said.
Taxi drivers have complained that it is becoming more difficult to make a living since deregulation in November 2000.
Deregulation has seen the number of taxis increase fivefold from 3,913 before deregulation to more than 20,000 since then. The number licensed in Dublin has increased from 2,722 to 12,128 in the same period.
William Prasifka rejected calls for a cap on taxi numbers. He argued that such a cap would inevitably lead to restrictions on services and the consumer would lose out.
He told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport that there was no established way to arrive at an appropriate level of taxis and such a move would be against the international trend.
“Introducing a limit would benefit current taxi drivers and penalise consumers, as well as future taxi drivers,” he said.
He acknowledged the grievances of taxi drivers, who held a protest earlier this month in Dublin about oversupply, but said that the best way to regulate standards in the industry was through the taxi regulator, Kathleen Doyle.
She is currently drawing up new standards for taxi drivers which will cover vehicles and their knowledge of routes.
However, several members of the committee said the effects of deregulation were making taxi drivers despair and many were leaving the business.
Fine Gael TD Shane Connaughton said the industry was “falling asunder” and he knew of four taxi drivers who were struggling to meet their mortgages. The effects of taxi deregulation were bad, not just for taxi drivers, but for the public because drivers were not out from Monday to Thursday because it was economically unviable.
“There are too many taxis out there and we’ve got to do something about it,” he said.
Labour TD Tommy Broughan said full-time taxi drivers are now competing with part-time drivers and he met several who were “almost in tears” trying to make a living.
Fianna Fáil Senator Martin Brady said he had heard of a taxi driver who did not know where Ballsbridge was and he was concerned about the calibre of people currently in the industry.
National Taxi Drivers’ Union president Tommy Gorman, who was present at the committee meeting, said the taxi industry cannot cope with the number of people continuing to enter it.
“Drivers have to work 14 or 15 hours a day to discharge their liabilities. It is having a damaging effect on family life,” he said.
“If we keep issuing 300 licences a month, we have got to find 9,000 new passengers a day to make them viable and I can’t see where all those extra people are.”
He said there should be a return to co-drivers to allow for the flexibility to ensure that there is a plentiful supply of taxis at all times.
