Taxi’s 90 minute search for new hostel

Date Published: 08-Feb-2008

A local taxi driver spent an hour-and-a-half looking for Galway City’s newest asylum seekers’ hostel after the Department of Justice gave just a ‘scrawled’ address to a Kuwaiti family.

Now, he has accused the Government of putting refugee families in danger by failing to provide proper transport and contact details when they are being sent to residential centres.

Following frantic calls to other taxi companies, the Gardaí and eventually an out-of-hours GP service on Wednesday night to locate ‘Lisbrook House’on the Headford Road, Gerry Concannon of Direct Taxis eventually discovered it is the former Ibis Hotel.

At one point, the driver became so concerned, he considered bringing the family — including three small children — to stay in his own home.

And as a gesture of goodwill, he also slashed the €65 taxi fare to €20. “I picked them…….