The Taoiseach and Transport Minister are being urged to acknowledge the ‘extreme shortage’ of taxis across the country.
The newly formed Taxis for Ireland Coalition says the lack of taxis in cities, towns and rural areas is hitting the public and businesses.
CEO of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, Kilkenny man Pat Crotty, says seven out of 10 people have reported difficulties getting home after socialising, noting; “Rural areas particularly but even in smaller urbans the taxi and hackney service is poor or non existent and particularly at the times when our members need it for their customers the result is that our members are having to drive customers home and if they didn’t do it they wouldn’t have any customers in the first place, it’s always a concern when people are doing an informal service like this but they don’t have any option”.
Four surveys commissioned this year by the Coalition members the Restaurants Association of Ireland, Uber, Bolt, and the Vintners Federation of Ireland, have found that customers, publicans and the wider public have a very poor view of the availability of taxis in Irish cities, towns and rural areas – significant findings from those surveys include;
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63.33% of publicans surveyed described their local taxi or hackney service as either poor or non-existent (VFI – September 2023).
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81% of people believe that the availability of public transport at off-peak periods is poor, or at best, average (RedC – July 2023).
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7 out of 10 people across Ireland find it difficult to get home from pubs and restaurants in their area (RedC – July 2023).
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From a survey of over 1000 people in urban Ireland, 58% agree there is a taxi shortage in Ireland, and 60% of regular taxi users were doing so for night-time socialising (Bounce Insights – March 2023).
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From a sample of over 1,000 people, 68% of those who either took or attempted to take a taxi in the last three months said that action should be taken to increase the number of taxis (YouGov – January 2023).
Hear Mr Crotty’s conversation with our Carol Dooley on today’s The KCLR Daily here;
