Taxi strike a 'matter of life and death'
Many claiming financial ruin
More photos:
Wednesday April 01 2009
Drivers are campaigning against the method used to issue licences, a lack of an appeals process against decisions of the Taxi Regulator and health and safety issues from double jobbing.
Taxi drivers staged a 24-hour protest at the Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords on Monday and said they would continue doing so until something was done by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and Taxi Regulator Kathleen Doyle.
Driver Liam Redmond said: 'Under the European directive, we are supposed to work 39 hours a week but we are working 70/80 hours a week and I'm € 300 short of paying my bills this month.
'I know drivers who have worked 11 hours straight and they have made just € 70. These guys are selling their homes and having their cars repossessed because they can't make their payments.
'There have been four suicides in the industry in the past few months.
'This is not about driving a taxi, it is about life and death.
'We have taken a hit of 40% to 50% in the last two years.'
Swords driver Alan Doyle has been working as a taxi man for 24 years and described the current taxi situation as the worst it has ever been.
'Last Wednesday I started at 4am and finished at 1.30pm and only got four jobs. It's like a dumping ground for the unemployed, nobody cares.' He was amongst the many protesters at Dublin Airport on Monday morning calling a cap on licences being issued.
' The amount of full time drivers doing 80 hours a week and the people working in McDonalds are earning more than us.'
- JULEY-ANN COLLINS
