I want to raise a problem which is so well known to the citizens of Dublin that it does not need much background, and that is the problem of a shortage of taxis in the city of Dublin. I am not raising it because it has been brought home to the public during the bus strike. This is a perennial problem which has been with us for a certain time. After 11.30 every evening it is as if there were no bus strike. People who do not have their own private cars, such as myself, and who wish to travel any distance in the city experience considerable difficulty in getting taxis either by going to a rank or by ringing one of the radio cab phones.
I should like to emphasise to the Minister the general disquiet at the difficulty in obtaining taxis. This hits one section of the community more than the others. The section of the community it hits are the poorer people—the people who do not own cars and particularly those people who work late in the city and who finish their occupations after 11.30 p.m. when the buses have ceased, if they are running normally —people such as waitresses, hotel porters, barmen and the staff in Leinster House. Every night we sit until 10 o'clock they do not get off until 11 o'clock. I was talking to one of the staff this afternoon who said that sometimes they had to wait for an hour or an hour and a half to get a taxi home. Where there is a shortage of a commodity, the worse off section of the community are those who are made to feel this shortage the most. Members of the Oireachtas probably drive in and out to Leinster House so they will not be faced with this.
This situation is to some extent attributable to the Minister for Local Government and his Department because he has some power to make regulations which would regularise the taxi service in the city. Another group of people who suffer considerably from taxi shortage are tourists. Tourists come to Ireland generally without their own cars: only a very small proportion of our tourists bring cars with them. They arrive, stay in the hotels and to move around they generally use taxis. There are frequent complaints from tourists and indeed from the people in hotels who have to obtatin taxis for them and who get the brunt of their complaints. Therefore, the shortage of taxis in the city of Dublin has a very unfortunate effect on our tourist trade. I have met a number of visitors here who say they are not prepared to come back and certainly not stay in the city of Dublin if the taxi situation does not improve because it has such an inhibiting effect on their movements.
I have travelled a certain amount myself in other European cities and cities in North America and I would say that our taxi service ranks among the worst in any of the major cities I know. Not only are the taxis difficult to obtain but they are also not uniform in their standard of condition of the vehicle, the cleanliness of the vehicle. Generally there is a lack of uniformity, there is a lack of standardisation and there is a lack of service. There is too much of a lackadaisical attitude about our taximen and I feel that anything that could be done by means of public pressure, by means of complaints, by means of action by the Minister to regularise the situation, to improve the standards and the availability of the cars or, in fact, the standards of the cars themselves, the general cleanliness, the general spirit in which the taximen operate, would be worth doing.
Under section 82 of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, the Minister for Local Government is empowered to make regulations governing the basic running of the taxi service. At present in Dublin all taxis are driver owned. In other words, the driver owns the taxis and then a central service is provided—a radio control is provided which people can ring and the radio control contacts the taxi in the area and send it out to the specific address. All but one of the radio control companies are co-ops, in other words, operated by the taximen themselves. Some years ago there were a number of privately owned firms but they have all left the business and the taxi owners, the co-ops, run the radio control in all except one case.
My contention is that, as governed by regulations made by the Minister for Local Government, the situation has been made too favourable to taximen and, as a result of the lack of competition and of the deterioration in standard owing to taximen only taking the road at certain times when is suits them, the service has declined. The provision of taxis in the city is an important facility. Like the position of hotel staff, taximen cannot just expect to work the present popular hours and not to be available at other times of the day, particularly the early morning. There must be some availability if we are to have a service.
The Minister has power to grant licences. He regulates the granting of licences to taximen. There are two licences. You must have a public service licence to drive the vehicle and then the vehicle itself must be licenced. The issuing of these licences is governed by regulations which are made by the Minister under the Road Traffic Act, 1961. Prior to 1970, applications for taxi licences could be made at any time of the year and in Statutory Instrument 138, 1970, applications for a taxi licence could be made only four times in the year, once in each quarter. In Statutory Instrument 225, 1973, this was restricted to the period of one fortnight in the year. This was done by the present Minister for Local Government and it has meant that it is not as easy to get a licence as it was before—the period for licensing is restricted. Certain other regulations have been made. Applicants who have not held licences before have to pay a considerably larger fee —something like £30 as compared to £3 which is the fee for people who have held licences for a number of years. New applicants for taxi licences must have cars of less than two years of age. There is some point in the final regulation because it is an attempt to improve the standard of the car that is being used, but the effect of these Statutory Instruments and the effect of the limitation on the time at which licences can be applied for has been a decrease in the number of applicants and consolidation of a system which is already inefficient.
One of the ways of rectifying the taxi situation in Dublin is to open it more to private enterprise rather than closing it down. I do not wish to see a change away from the private enterprise system that operates in Dublin, but if one is to have private enterprise why not have the benefits of private enterprise? Private enterprise produces efficient taxi systems in other cities. Why cannot it do the same here? The private enterprise system will be governed by the Minister for Local Government. He is going to make the regulations which will control the system and there is no reason why the regulations under which taximen operate should not be stiffer. For example there could be staggered periods. There is no reason to grant a completely open licence for operation. Taximen could use a sticker and they could operate, say, staggered hours from midnight to 8 p.m. on certain days, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on other days, 4 p.m. to midnight on other days of the week. By working a rota system like this and insisting that taxi drivers work certain unpopular hours it would help to cover the hours at which it is difficult to obtain taxis. This sticker system is used successfully in other cities. There is also the familiar scene in other cities where taxis have either a standard appearance or a standard colour.
One of the problems facing the Minister and his Department in attempting to make regulations governing our taxis is that persons take out a taxi licence, operate for a short time and then drop out. Licences could be made more easy to obtain and could be more readily available, provided certain minimum standards were met and if there was some way of ensuring that the people who operated taxis were full-time taximen. For example, one could either say: "O.K., if you are going to operate taxis you must paint your car a specific colour," such as yellow in New York. This has several advantages. It makes it easier for the people who are trying to pick up taxis in the street. The yellow cab can be picked out a long distance from the intending hire passenger.
In London there is the special type of car which is used as a taxi. It has another advantage in that it is driven on cheaper fuel, as it is a diesel burning vehicle rather than petrol. The diesel fuel means that taxi prices are lower than they would be if the car were running on petrol fuel. There is also more mileage. There is an advantage in having this standardised type of cab and there should be no objection to paying a reasonable fare. The fares are set by regulation. The service should be reasonably available. I am not stating that if one goes out at 4 o'clock in the morning and calls for a taxi that one should immediately appear, but in a capital city such as Dublin and which has a large number of visitors we should be able to lay on a 24-hour taxi service.
It is illegal for a taximan to pick up more than one fare on the same journey if the first fare does not wish. He is not permitted to charge two people the same fare for going the same distance. It is being done consistently right across the board. Four people get into a taxi, they are all charged the same fare, and this is illegal as the law stands. There is no reason why a taximan should not be entitled to charge people a fare and split it over the whole cost. Fares can only be raised if we are getting a proper service. The Minister has it in his power to make regulations. He makes regulations as regards the handing out of licences. That is the crucial matter, and our taxi service is far below standard. It would be worth opening the system more to private enterprise and allowing more taxis on to the street provided the minimum restrictions were observed. Then we might provide a better service than the present poor one.
