Taxi drivers are furious at Kelly's plan for rural areas

 

“If these new licences are brought in, you might as well take your car up to Mullingar recycling plant and they give you the weight of it for scrappage, because that’s all it’s going to be worth!”

That’s the response to Junior Minister for Transport Alan Kelly’s idea of a rural hackney licence, as well as a voluntary transport arrangement, which has put taxi drivers in fear for their livelihoods.

Chris McKenna, a taxi man for the last seven years, based in the Killucan Raharney area, said taxi associations across the country are opposed to the proposals, and the minister will effectively put them on the streets if they are put in place.

The rural taxis are expected to be operating by Christmas and are described as a low-cost and reduced red-tape entry, with a €50 licence fee. There is no requirement to sit special driving or knowledge tests, and there is a waiver of some of the normal luggage space and seating requirements.

“If they introduce that, and I’m not just talking about Raharney, Killucan or Rathwire, I’m talking anywhere in the country – an operation like me in small areas – it’s going to wipe them out,” Chris told the Westmeath Examiner on Friday.

Operators will need a community group and the local authority to confirm the need for a hackney, and they would be restricted to covering a limited area within an isolated rural district, and could not ply for trade in towns.

“Well if some guy wants to go in to Mullingar, he’s gonna get to Mullingar cheaper by hiring this guy here, he’s gonna get him to Mullingar and he’s quite entitled to bring him back out of Mullingar. So there’s two official taxi journeys done away with straight away, and how many and how often is that going to happen throughout the country?”

According to Chris, the reasoning behind this move by Minister Kelly is to make up for the lack of rural transport.
“To my mind, Alan Kelly has withdrawn a lot of the budget from rural transport system, and I think this is his way of fixing it, which is a cheap way of fixing it,” Chris maintains.

“We have a two-tier system as it is – taxis and hackneys. They can’t police the two-tier system which they have at the moment. To my mind this is not going to be controlled at all.”

Moving to the lack of luggage space and knowledge tests, Chris said: “That there in itself is saying you could use a donkey and cart if you want, and then in the second initiative, about car owners in isolated areas, it doesn’t compute. I mean that’s giving anybody who has a seat in the arse of his trousers, to go and do what he likes – you cannot police that.”

“Alan Kelly is trying to fix the rural transport problem he has by doing what he has, and it’s a cheap way of doing it.
“If this guy could approach the various different organisations throughout the country and see what can be done. Alan Kelly is a career politician and he wants re-election.

“Where he says about these people carrying other people as local favours and that, where’s the insurance company? The like of this €50 licence, it’s a low cost and reduced red tape entry into the system, what insurance company is going to cover these guys? Bear in mind I pay of €1,500 year for that. That has to go through a suitability test every year.

“I think it’s a step too far. I think it’s going to tear the heart out of it. This guy is going to put us on the streets in more ways than one.”