300 unlicensed taxis flood city touting for business

Date Published: 02-Aug-2010

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Around 300 unlicensed taxis were touting for business on the city’s streets during Race Week, a taxi union representative has claimed.

James Connolly, Vice Chairman of the National Taxi Drivers Union and a member of the Taxi Advisory Council, said the cars – which are not licensed to operate in Galway – were “everywhere you looked”.

And local Independent TD Noel Grealish said the Taxi Regulator has “serious questions to answer” after the drivers were allowed to operate unchecked.

Mr Connolly told the Sentinel: “I’ve never seen it that bad before. The place was flooded with cars I’ve never seen before. To put a figure on it, I’d say there were 300 at a minimum, and that’s not an exaggeration. These guys were everywhere. They’ve roof signs, they are taxi drivers, but they’re not licensed to work in Galway, and therefore not properly insured.

“I was working five nights during the week, for eight or nine hours a night, and could see it myself, they were everywhere, and you’d see them with the licence on the dashboard turned down so you couldn’t read it,” said Mr Connolly.

He said there didn’t seem to be a clampdown by the Taxi Regulator during the past week.“The guards did a comprehensive check four or five weeks ago on a weekend night, and these guys just fled. My takings that night were up 35-40%. It’s anecdotal, but it gives you a fair indication of the scale of the problem,” said Mr Connolly.

Meanwhile, Deputy Grealish has demanded an urgent meeting with Regulator Kathleen Doyle as well as the local Garda Superintendent.

“I’m aware there were illegal operators in town during Race Week. The Regulator has serious questions to answer. I want to know if they put checkpoints in place, and if not, why not,” Deputy Grealish said.

He pointed out that any drivers who are not properly licensed to work in the city are not insured. “They need to be run out of town."

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