A taxi dispute across the State due to begin today at 5am could see up to 14,000 taxi drivers off the roads for 24 hours in protest at planned changes over charges.
Pickets will be placed at taxi ranks in every county in the voluntary dispute. The pickets will also be placed on the rank at Dublin airport, where 2,000 drivers operate. The unions say they are likely to participate fully as they would be hardest hit by the changes.
At Dublin airport, bus companies are preparing contingency operations to meet the increased demand and hackney drivers will be operating as normal.
The taxi drivers are protesting over a new national taxi fare which comes into force in September. Extra charges for luggage and a €1.50 hiring charge for picking up passengers at Dublin airport will be abolished.
Members of the three main taxi unions: the Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation, the National Taxi Drivers' Union and Siptu, will take part. They claim that taxi regulator Ger Deeling has failed to recognise their concerns about the abolition of charges.
A spokeswoman for Dublin Bus, which has between 15 and 17 dedicated Airlink buses and several suburban bus routes operating between the airport and the city centre, said they were at full capacity.
"It is a case of monitoring it and see how we are," she said.
There would be two Dublin Bus inspectors out at the airport who will be in touch with the depots during the day, she said.
Aircoach, the private coach operator, will be increasing its frequency on the route to and from Dublin city centre to every 10 minutes, instead of 20 minutes, and will increase its capacity from 18 coaches during the day to 28. They will run from 5am.
A Dublin Airport Authority spokeswoman said there was not a problem with car parking as most people were just dropped at the airport by car. She said there were over 800 buses into and out of the airport every day. Extra airport staff would be on the ground directing people and advising them on alternatives to taxis particuarly those coming in as they would not be aware of the strike.
National Taxi Drivers' Union general secretary Tommy Gorman said they had thought there might be a change in the plan on Friday.
"We thought there might be some form of going back to the table, but that didn't happen so it is going ahead," he said.
President of the Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation, John Ussher, said the stoppage was voluntary.
"It's being portrayed as an airport dispute but that's not true as the changes affect taxi drivers in different ways in different parts of the country," he said.
Christy Humphreys, of the Irish Hackney Drivers' Association, said they had 10,000 hackney cab drivers throughout the country and 2,000 in Dublin, including a minority at the airport. "We are not backing the stoppage and our cabs will be fully operational," he said.
Yesterday, Seán Murphy,director of policy of business organisation Chambers Ireland, criticised the stoppage.
"The unions have called this strike over two small elements of what is a very comprehensive restructuring of the entire taxi fares' system which has seen increases in some areas and decreases in others," he said.
The taxi regulator's action plan was the culmination of a process commenced under the Taxi Regulation Act 2003 and involved widespread consultation with all stakeholders, including drivers and unions that began in 2001, he said.