Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

At varying intervals in the past few months various taxi unions have tried to hold the commuters of this city to ransom. The most recent threat was before the Ryder Cup on the basis of a change of fee by the Dublin Airport Authority from 70 cent per pick-up to an annual fee of €500. I recently learned from figures supplied by the taxi unions' economist to the taxi regulator that when this €500 fee is introduced, the pick-up fee that taxis pay to the Dublin Airport Authority will be reduced from 70 cent to only 32 cent. The unions have tried to prevent this fee from being introduced.

For the past number of months the unions have been trying to cajole the Minister for Transport to prevent the Taxi Regulator from introducing many worthwhile reforms. It is time we had a debate with the Minister on the Dublin taxi service. We must ensure that the Taxi Regulator's function is not diminished by the unions' attempts to seek meetings with the Minister to try to appeal the different types of regulation the regulator is introducing. Every time a taxi picks up a passenger at Dublin Airport, the taxi driver pays the Dublin Airport Authority 70 cent. Based on the unions' estimate of six fares per day, five and a half days per week, 50 weeks per year, the annual fee of €500 works out at 32 cent per pick up. While this has been debated in recent months, the figures have never been put into the public domain. It is time we took on the taxi unions and had a frank debate on their role in providing a service in this city.