Whatever grievances Dublin's taxi drivers and owners may have over the cost and the administration of licences, and whatever claim they may have had on the sympathies of the general citizenry, yesterday's disruption in the capital has cost them dear in terms of public good will. The vox populi interviews on radio and television gave a mild flavour of the anger and resentment which their blockading tactics aroused. Much more vigorous and largely unprintable sentiments were on many lips in the motor queues in and around the city.
To disrupt the traffic systems of an already congested city on an ordinary day would be bad enough. To do it on election day when people have the added task of getting to and from the polling stations is doubly reprehensible. It is contemptuous of the very process of democracy to plan disruption for such a day. And it is tantamount to a denial of voting rights to those who are most likely to have to rely on taxis to get out to vote - the elderly, the infirm, the isolated. Taxi spokesmen tried, unconvincingly, last evening to argue that they had no intention of causing such widespread disruption. It was the fault of the gardai, according to one spokesman. This is not good enough. It is not possible to mobilise such large numbers of motor cars in the narrow streets of the capital without the certainty of large-scale obstruction. The gardai were faced with a complex task without adequate notice. Their priority had to be to keep the streets clear for emergency vehicles and personnel - considerations which, it seems, were not taken sufficiently on board by the taxi drivers.
Dublin's taxi drivers have legitimate grievances. By and large they are a hard-working group, providing a good service with courtesy and professionalism and at reasonable value for money. But relations with their customer base are increasingly soured by their inability to meet demands for service at peak times. That the business is so appallingly regulated and managed by the powers that be is not the drivers' or the owners' fault. A medieval licensing system makes it impossible for anyone to get into the business without putting up a prince's ransom in cash. Each driver thus has to achieve a very high level of earnings in order to pay off his investment. In turn - and understandably - this means that they resist new entrants coming into the trade, for fear of diluting their earnings.
It defeats rationality why no government, no minister, can take a grip of the situation. Complete and thorough deregulation, with the reduction of plate fees to a token sum would solve the problem overnight. It would not necessarily please all those who are now in the business and some interim or compensatory arrangements would have to be made for those who have committed large sums - often their life savings - to buying a plate. But it would give the citizens of Dublin, and their visitors, that which they are entitled to expect in a modern city - a taxi service which is reliable, available and inexpensive. Dublin is choking under the volume of private motor cars. But who can really blame drivers who feel they must rely on their own cars when public transport is so inadequate and when it is impossible to find a taxi at peak times? What passes for transport policy in Dublin would not be tolerated anywhere else in the developed world.