Not since Robert de Niro looked at us and asked ‘are you looking at me’ has the stock of the impoverished taxidriver plummeted as low as it has this week following the Prime Time Investigates programme on the industry. While nobody is surprised that there are rotten elements to all out of our professions, it is the scale of this decomposition that is the most alarming fallout from Paul Maguire’s fantastically researched and edited programme.
We need to be able able to tell vulnerable people that they are better off taking a taxi rather than walking home, but this programme has put the fear of God into families up and down the country. After seeing this, people are scared of recommending a taxi as the safest option to get you to your destination, and this is a massive insult to the thousands of drivers who have done nothing to besmirch their noble profession.
There is no doubt that the vast majority of taxidrivers are honest people, full of integrity and who do their job in a most professional and most courteous manner. We have all had experiences of the decent taxidrivers, the ones who help you out when your car is broken down or when some other misfortune has befallen you. We hear of drivers bringing vulnerable elderly and young people home without collecting a fare. However, it is the other side of the profession that sticks in the mind and does a grave injustice to the industry as a whole.
The stories of sexual assaults, of deviants being given control of taxis are symptoms of a system that has failed us all. The Taxi Regulator who is paid by us and is answerable to us did not even have the courage of her convictions to address the programme or subsequent TV programme and allay our fears. Is this another instance of where regulation, and expensive regulation has once again failed this country?
It was shocking to hear that there are 6,000 criminals driving taxis in Ireland. Gardai have confirmed that while some of these offenses are on a minor scale, some are at the other end of the scale and the impunity with which these offenders could secure taxi licences and get on the road was shocking.
The fact that the industry is to at last have the review it needs is very welcome, as is the news that this probe is to be expedited. It will take place in the next three weeks and the findings will be published before the autumn, so hopefully come winter, we will have in place a system to prohibit dangerous criminals and incompetents from operating as taxidrivers.
