Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

Last week, I spoke about companies that are holding up to 200 taxi plates and renting them out at a cost of between €100 and €200 per week. There will be a major taxi drivers' strike in Dublin tomorrow. It will finish out on Merrion Square. Why? We have all become familiar with the various companies we can use to get a taxi. One of those companies has introduced a new way of dealing with drivers. A case in point was given to me today. The company in question quoted €66 for a taxi trip from Cabinteely in Dublin to Dublin Airport, which is about right. It then put out a message to taxi drivers that it was prepared to offer a driver €30 to do the trip. They are ripping off taxi drivers.

We brought in deregulation to encourage competition and now competition is being undermined in two areas, one of which is single owners owning multiple plates and renting them out. The second is the introduction of a new system on the part of one of these call companies. I understand that the system these companies are using in the UK is such that when you ring for a taxi, you get a quote for, say, £25. The company then puts out a message to drivers saying there is a trip from A to B and offers £10, and if there are no takers, it might increase it to £10.50. Eventually, the company gets a taxi driver who will go for maybe £12 and pockets the rest. I hope that is not going to be allowed in this country. Taxis are expensive. We have all used them and we use them all the time because we have to. To think the fee is not going into the hands of the family man or woman driving the car is, for me that is anti-competitive. I will be writing to the competition authority today to see if it is prepared to look into it. We should have a debate in this Chamber on the whole issue of transport.