Seanad Report: Irish people must learn to complain if they want to bring about a better taxi service, Mr Dick Roche, Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, said.
"We are far too compliant. We never ever try to exercise our rights as consumers. Making a complaint is an absolutely vital element in creating a good customer service," Mr Roche said in the debate on the Bill to regulate the taxi industry.
A very small number of those in the industry were guilty of "scalping" or of being abusive to their customers, and it was wrong that the entire industry should suffer as a result.
Mr Roche referred to remarks made by Ms Mary White (FF) who said she had experienced fare extortion recently when she had taken a taxi from Mallow, Co Cork, to a hotel in Duhallow.
The journey on an open road had taken 12 minutes, and she had been horrified to be charged €22.50.
Mr Cyprian Brady (FF) said the media had tended to highlight a tax on taxi passengers, but there had also been an increase in assaults on drivers. This had always been a hazard of the job. He could recall when his own father had been in the business and had been abducted by armed paramilitaries and forced to spend six hours in the Dublin Mountains at gunpoint.
Mr David Norris (Ind) said that taxi-drivers were by and large a pretty decent bunch of people and it was not fair on them that people with criminal records were coming into the industry. A well-known Dublin criminal had been shot while driving a taxi.
Mr Tim Dooley (FF) said he did not think they could make a blanket ruling against people who had got into trouble with the law and were trying to get their lives back on track.
Mr Tom Morrissey (PD) said he had sympathy with the taxi industry over the issue of part-timers. It was not good enough that people in other jobs could put up taxi signs on their cars and ply for trade after finishing work.
Mr Fergal Browne (FG) stressed the need for the new taxi commission to be given adequate resources.
In the light of the decision of the Minister for Finance to reduce the number of public servants by 5,000 in the next few years, definite commitments to resourcing the commission should be made up front.