Sir, - My mother, who is 69, has multiple brain tumours with the result that she has become severely disabled and wheelchair-bound.
On a recent Sunday we brought her to lunch in our house from the nursing home in which she is staying in Sandymount. We booked a wheelchair-accessible taxi both for the outward and return journeys with a well-known taxi company. While she was collected promptly and the driver was very helpful, the return taxi failed to show at 4.30 p.m., as booked. The taxi company told us no taxis were available and that there was an indefinite waiting time. My mother became quite agitated and upset as this delay only highlighted her dependency.
We then rang approximately eight other taxi companies, none of which was prepared to help us. One operator went so far as to tell us that taxi companies did not like collecting people in wheelchairs as they can make a bigger profit by carrying several passengers in the same taxi. Eventually we had no choice but to try and manhandle my mother into our own car and bring her back to the nursing home. We finally had a call from the original taxi company promising a taxi at approximately 7.30 p.m., three hours after our original booking.
It has previously been our experience that many taxi firms won't even accept a booking for a wheelchair-accessible taxi. We have also noticed that none of them seem to have proper clamping arrangements to secure the wheelchair in position.
This is obviously yet another situation where the taxi industry puts profit before people. Having obtained special incentives to provide wheelchair-accessible taxis, the taxi-drivers are doing their utmost to ensure they do not benefit those for whom they were intended.
We cannot begin to express our disgust at this callous and self-serving attitude. - Yours, etc.,
Annie O'Sullivan, Blackrock, Co Dublin.