Taxi Drivers Halt Work Across Ireland

Little Disruption On The Day, But They're Threatening The Ryder Cup

Last week's national taxi strike took place, causing traffic disruption, but on a lesser scale than had been predicted.

The strike, supported by Ireland's three main taxi drivers associations, affected passengers at Dublin airport worst.

In Dublin city centre long queues formed for buses to the airport, with waits as long as 40 minutes.

Passengers arriving at Dublin airport on long-haul flights faced delays of up to three hours to get to the city centre.

The strike was called in protest at proposed changes to taxi fares which drivers say will cost them thousands of Euros every year.

The drivers want to retain additional charges for servicing Dublin airport and for carrying passengers' luggage.

They are also furious at proposals to have a nationalised taxi fare scale which will see reductions of the current fares.

This week the taxi associations warned that the strike action would be stepped up in coming months, increasing fears that the Ryder Cup, which is due to be staged at the K Club in Kildare later this year will be badly affected.

Drivers said that they are considering striking during the event.

That would leave not only thousands of tourists and golf-fans facing huge delays at Dublin airport but would also cause tail-backs on the roads leading from Dublin to Kildare.

The chances of a strike taking place during the Ryder Cup were also increased this week when it emerged that local taxi drivers wont be able to get anywhere near the K-Club because of the enforcement of strict park and ride points.

Local drivers say that they will strike against such a policy.

Earlier this month the staging of a music festival in Kildare, which coincided with an GAA All-Ireland Championship match at Croke Park caused huge delays for travellers in Kildare, forcing the Garda to issue traffic alerts for the area.

Tommy Gorman, president of the National Taxi Drivers Union, said that a national standardised fares structure would lead to a loss of income in nine parts of the country where they have minimum charges of 6 Euro during the day and 6.50 Euro during the night.

"Those areas would show a 22pc loss. We can understand putting a national fare structure in place, but is it fair to ask people in these nine areas to work at a reduced rate when oil prices are rising all the time?" he asked.

There are hopes of compromise talks between Taxi Regulator, Ger Deering, who wants to implement the fare changes and the unions.

However in recent months such talks ended in stalemate, leading to last week's strike action.

Mr Deering said the changes are a "re-balancing of fares".

"The minimum charges around the country range from 2.80 Euro to 6 Euro and this would be from one provincial town to another," he said.

Nationwide there were 36 different fares structures at present, he added.

Aircoach, the independent transport company, laid on additional vehicles at Dublin Airport last week and also hired extra coaches.

The company's customer service representative at the airport, Paul O'Reilly, said that the wait for a bus had been shortened to just ten minutes in the afternoon.

If a resolution to the taxi dispute isn't found before the Ryder Cup 'tees' off, many of tourists may find their first glimpse of Ireland is not of green fields, but congested roads.