Dublin taxi-drivers will meet next week to assess yesterday's protest which brought the capital to a standstill, and to decide on further action to advance their demands.
The demonstration paralysed the city from early morning and was strongly condemned by angry workers, businesses and many organisations, which claimed the taxi men had "held the city to ransom by their irresponsible action". The Dublin Chamber of Commerce said the action cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to businesses in O'Connell Street alone.
The president of the Irish TaxiDrivers' Federation, Mr John Ussher, stressed there had been no intention to cause traffic disruption and claimed the problem was created by the gardai for refusing to let them travel in convoy.
This interpretation of the situation was strongly rejected by the gardai, who said it was logistically impossible to let over 300 taxis go through the city at 7.30 a.m. when the morning rush had already begun.
The protest ended at 4.30 p.m. by which time the evening rush had started, so it was about 8 p.m. before traffic returned to normal. The taxi-drivers resumed work at 9 p.m.
Dublin Chamber of Commerce described the protest as "outrageous" and an abuse by the taxidrivers of their position. The Automobile Association said it was "one of the worst situations in Dublin for a very long time", with traffic at a standstill on all except two or three routes in the city centre. "There was a lot of anger among motorists, and we had reports of people driving on footpaths in O'Connell Street trying to escape the gridlock."
The taxi-drivers are complaining that their licence renewal fee has gone up from £7 to £450 since 1992, while the fare rate has risen by only 5p a mile since 1985 to the present 80p level.
The Irish Wheelchair Association expressed "extreme anger" at the way the issue of wheelchairaccessible taxis was being used in the dispute. Its chief executive officer, Mr Seamus Thompson, said he was "amazed" to hear taxidrivers complain about rises in the cost of special licences, when "as far as wheelchair-users are concerned, taxi operators are simply content to ignore wheelchair-using members of the public".
Gridlock seizes city centre: page 2; Frustration at taxi market: page 14; Editorial comment: page 15