DIRECTOR FOR taxi regulation Kathleen Doyle has refused a Dublin City Council request to meet with a cross-party group of councillors to discuss the difficulties faced by the taxi industry.
In a letter to be discussed by councillors next week, Ms Doyle said her office was independent and it would not be appropriate to accept the meeting.
Ms Doyle had originally been invited to meet councillors last October, but declined. The councillors subsequently wrote to then minister for transport Noel Dempsey say it was “unacceptable” for the regulator not to meet with council members. Mr Dempsey responded that the issues raised were a matter for the Commission for Taxi Regulation and he had forwarded the letter to Ms Doyle’s office.
City councillors from all parties had sought the meeting with Ms Doyle to discuss what they described as the “crisis”. The regulator had contributed to “an over-supply of taxis needlessly driving around the city with no place to pull in, to queue for fares and/or rest”. This had caused pollution, gridlock and health difficulties for the drivers, councillors said.
Councillors were seeking the meeting to discuss the impact of upcoming rail construction work in the city on the taxi industry, the possibility for reinvesting funds collected by the regulator from drivers back into the industry and the increasing level of suicide among drivers.
In her response, Ms Doyle said she had submitted proposals to the Department of Transport for a subsidy from surplus fees to be granted to drivers upgrading to wheelchair-accessible taxis. Her office had met with the National Suicide Prevention Agency.
She said she would be happy to meet with senior council staff but “it would not be appropriate to accept a meeting with the cross-party group of city councillors”.
The Commission for Taxi Regulation has been subsumed into the National Transport Authority. A spokesman said the authority is now represented on a subcommittee of the council’s transport committee. “The authority is therefore in a position to keep councillors up to date with developments in the taxi sector,” he said.
