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A REVIEW BY the National Transport Authority (NTA) of the national maximum taxi fare may recommend an increase in prices as the industry feels the effects of soaring fuel costs.
Representatives from the industry claim it has not seen a full recovery after the pandemic and that drivers are now also being hit with rising fuel costs.
Drivers say they have not seen a national fare increase since 2018, as a recommended 4.5% rise in 2019 was delayed due to the pandemic.
A fresh NTA review of the national maximum taxi fare is currently underway and the authority told The Journal that fuel costs will be a “major contributor” as it considers increases.
David McGuinness, chairperson of Tiomanai Tacsai na hEireann (TTnH) said that there has been more activity since Covid restrictions were lifted, but that demand has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“I’d say Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are probably back to 80%, but Monday to Thursday is still at 50%,” he told The Journal.
“To have massive fuel hikes basically forced on us on top of that is having a really detrimental effect on the industry.”
Because of rising fuel costs, he said the way the industry operates may have to dramatically change as drivers may not be able to bear the cost burden of travelling longer distances to pick up customers.
“You don’t get paid for driving three or four kilometres to pick up someone for the app companies, that’s at the drivers expense,” he explained. “If you do that six or seven or ten times a day. that’s an extra cost the driver can’t afford.”
McGuinness also said drivers may choose to park up at ranks, around busy locations, or to only collect fares that are in their area in order to offset the cost of their operations.
There have been calls recently for an emergency €1 surcharge to be added to taxi journeys to account for the rising costs of petrol and diesel.
McGuinness said that while his organisation supports those calls, TTnH is urging the government to go further than that and lower taxes on fuel, a measure he said would benefit all motorists.
“Everybody is hit by this, including other commercial vehicles like ourselves – the hauliers have been calling for the same in their meetings,” he said.
On Wednesday Cabinet signed off on a cut in excise on petrol and diesel, which will see the cost of an average tank of petrol or diesel drop by €12 and €9 respectively.
McGuinness said he does not think the announcement this week “will have any impact” and called for the government to consider cuts to other taxes on fuel.
He said drivers will also be hoping for a considerable increase in the national maximum taxi fare to help ease the burden on them.
“You have to take into account that the industry hasn’t been given an increase over the previous two years but the cost of everything has gone up,” he said.
“It’s not just fuel, I bought tyres last week and they were up €30 per tyre. It would have to be a substantial increase to make a difference.”
However a recommendation from the NTA is not likely until late summer, with a public consultation period due to begin around six weeks from now.
In response to a query from The Journal, the NTA said the review is “well underway” and that fuel costs are “a major contributor in consideration of increases”.
The authority said the proposal for a €1 emergency fare surcharge is not possible under the existing legal framework.
“The existing Maximum Fares Order states that the fares and charges contained in the schedule to it are fixed; they are the maximum fares and charges that may be charged by the driver,” the NTA said.
“Extra metered charges that are allowed, which include a booking fee, tolls and additional passenger charges are specified in the order, and a surcharge for fuel or otherwise is explicitly not among them.”
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Surprised its taken this long but who else have they got? All 6 of them are in serious danger of losing their seats at the next election. Bacik has been anonymous since she got elected, apart from attending Merrion gate and Aodhain ORiordan… enough said. They should probably merge with Fine Gael.
@Richie56: maybe Catherine Martin might defect given that she’s in the market for a leadership position? Comes with all the right qualifications, useless, incompetent etc etc…
@Paul Shepherd: tell us who in your opinion is useful and competent etc etc, be interesting to see if there is a woman on your list..populist throw away comments like this are sad, I have no party affiliation
@Richie56: shows how little you know about Labour if you think they should merge with FG.
@Paul Shepherd: or hazel chu considering she stands in any election
@Richie56: Well Kelly should join FG, — that’s it if they would have him,and I suppose they would. He was very much a Blue shirt when he was trying to force the water charges . The Labour Party is finished .
@Martin Smith: I hear Hazel has been randomly turning up at GAA AGM’s all around the country in the hopes of being elected to any sort of position.
@Richie56: .should amalgamate with Social Democrats.
@Charlie Murphy: nothing to do with the fact that she’s a woman. There are equally incompetent male TD’s. As for a list….you’ll have to leave that with me given the dearth of available talent.
@Richie56: bout the same performance as our Taoiseach- without the profile that Taoiseach attracts
The Labour Party? I think I remember them. Weren’t they the party of working people at one stage? At least they claimed to be back in the 70′s and 80′s when I used to vote for them. Not sure what the ‘Labour’ part of their name means these days given that they now seem to represent the guilt-ridden, hand-wringing, liberal middle-class…
And to think that the wealthy parts of Dublin Bay South voted for Labour in the last by-election instead of voting for FG tells you how far they have come from being a party for workers.
@William Tallon: That just about sums up the reasons for their decline.
@William Tallon: to an extent they (Labour) have gone they way of the Labour Party in England but more so, if you get my drift. The majority of people they used to represent, the original ‘working class’, (factory workers, farm laborers, dockers, shop workers etc) prior to 1990 have by and large moved into a different social and economic sphere thanks to access to second and third level education and social improvement up to Celtic Tiger years.
The Labour Party need to sit down and decide who and what they are for today and they need to display a social conscience in order to win support. There are many good party members and representatives out there but these days the party is up against Sinn Fein and their policies, particularly with younger people.
@Siobhan O’Sullivan Morrin: The original ‘working-class’? Working-class people still exist as in unskilled low-paid general operatives, factory workers, shop and service workers etc. Thousands of them are part-time or zero-hours contract workers open to exploitation. I think it’s safe to assume that their parents and grandparents were also working-class people and the problems they’ve always faced haven’t gone away or changed much either. Individuals may have benefited from social improvements at different stages but as a demographic, the working-class hasn’t gone away or morphed into something else. That’s something the Labour Party chose to do and consequently lost working-class support. Your rosy view of how the lot of the working class has improved doesn’t hold water I’m afraid…
Couldn’t happen to a nicer fellow,
“Power is a drug and it suits me!”
A famous quote from the Egotist.
Nice one
@Fr.Todd Unctious: Who is he ?
@Fr.Todd Unctious: It’ll be Ivana Baczik guarantee ya!
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: Ah yes. She should be the one to transform Labour from low single digits to..slightly higher low single digits.
@Toon Army: Hahaha.. Yep. Maybe, if they’re lucky.
@Joe Johnson: Caesar
Gilmore,and Burton sowed the seeds for the destruction of Labour.They have totally disbanded the old Labour principals and what they represented
A poisonous party who in no shape or form represented a worker’s vote. A consistency of brown matter exiting from between their (other) cheeks when they speak. Untrustworthy and unforgivable to the end. Vote for labour and you may as well flush your ballot paper down with their promises.
@Robert Moore: In fairness, you could put every Irish political party in the same sentence there…
@Vestigial: He had his chance when last in government. The so called Labour Party became more Blueshirt than the Blueshirts. Kelly’s Road to Damascus came when they were anilaleted at the ballot box.
He will probably join the Mother Party, just like that other leader Michael O Leary did. They are dead, Bury them. Water Tax :)
@Liam Byrne:
Oops! Fine Gale.
The Labour Party couldn’t even make headway in the polls when RTE treat them like the main opposition party, they shafted their core support when in govt, allowing the loss of double pay on Sundays, reduction of minimum pay etc etc etc. They’re no loss.
@ian mccarthy: the labour party don’t recognise God let alone Sunday
@Liam O Connor: “That which can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof”.
He will not be missed. As a once staunch Labour supporter he was the complete antithesis of what the Labour Party once stood for. His ego, arrogance and his utterly blinkered stance on water charges were his downfall. I doubt there will be much sympathy for him.
And this is news why? Irrelevant leader of an irrelevant party. Slow news day.
@Paul Shepherd: thoughtless, cliched, irrelevant comment on an ‘irrelevant’ article. my favourite type of post and I am now pleased to be able to add my own one to this online landfill.
@alan: I was just feeling bored and looking for something to do until the Angelus…..
@Paul Shepherd: why are you commenting?
@Vestigial: it’s no doubt down to his combative style but I actually like that about him.
He’s clearly stepping down as he knows he won’t be in government again…. I wouldn’t be suprised if he eventually jumped ship to another party…
@M.J. O’ Neill:
He probably has enough time served to get a leaders Pension.
Makes announcement outside Leinster house ….. no one cares .. he could make it outside a chippers
@John Kavanagh: yet here you are commenting
Looks like he’s going back to his true home. Watch this space for Stephen Donnelly style defection to the FFGs?
Alan Kelly’s record as leader is one by-election contested and the seat won? Odd call to oust him but I won’t complain if Labour are infighting and pressing the self destruct button.
Imagine the absurdity of a “ Left wing” party that voted to abolish medical cards for disabled children!
Yes that’s the Irish Labour Party, they did this and would like you to forget it!
Who?
@leartius: Alan Kelly. It says it in the article.
@Fr.Todd Unctious: who??
Gilmore,and Burton sowed the seeds for the destruction of Labour.They have totally disbanded the old Labour principals and what they represent
Never voted labour,I’m from limerick,Jim Kenny was a legend,Jan O’Sullivan is a joke.
@Daniel Roche: Jim Kemmy.
“Anybody who says that power isn’t attractive is telling you a lie. Of course it is,” he grins.
“It’s obviously a drug. It’s attractive. It’s something you thrive on. It suits some people. It doesn’t suit others. I think it suits me.”
@JusticeForJoe: You can feel his friendship with John Delaney coming through the quote
Labour are nothing like what they used to be, once upon a time they had decent leaders and stood for something now though, they are a joke of a party clinging onto the idea that they once mattered while refusing to look to the electorate for guidance on what they want rather than what this lot think they want.
Won’t be missed
There was a push for awhile to promote Kelly as a kind of radical loud mouth as though Ireland would forget austerity. Now Power in Ireland is worried because of lack of housing the country has swiungi left.
Due to Labour’s performance the past 10 years and no credible alternative they are sunk and the left consolidates in SF. The pendulum of a government with every few years labour in government no longer works. Its reduced now to SF vs FG+FF. I suppose the hope was people would take up the safer labour option but they have not.
@Albert Brennerman: which is a completely false differentiation. in reality, FF/FG/SF are all centrist, market oriented parties.
@alan: I don’t think that’s true. FF and FG are sort of centralists, they swing a bit left and a bit right and really, in the past 2 decades, don’t have any real core values so never make any real change. While, SF are populist, they will say whatever they think will appeal to their base – free houses, tax the rich, increase social welfare, the lot – very much like Trump appealing to his base as much as he can. Ireland doesn’t have any real political spectrum, it’s a mess, an identityless missmash of terrible political parties and worse choices, crying out for a new party and a new wave but too cynical to support anything new
@alan: FFG are neo liberalist, that brand of thatcher/ Reagan politics which they try to tell us doesn’t exist but they implement on a daily basis. They have no social conscience as they believe Thatchers doctrine that “ who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.”
He must have discovered a new drug
I wonder will Labour soon follow the path of the PDs and fade into obscurity. I was just reading about the PDs, I hadn’t realised they were disbanded in 2009. I’d have said 2013/14. Hard to credit it being 13 years.
Another pension
@Ciaran Goggins: Yes, please…
Always irritated me listening to his arrogance when highlighting the flaws of other parties. Never had any solutions to the problems he liked to highlight. Very negative leader.
Bye
On a nice fat pension no doubt. Supplied by us working saps.
Labour are totally irrelevant as a political party. People will never forgive them for their stand in austerity and water charges under Joan’s leadership. So his resignation makes absolutely no difference they will probably merge with FG to have any hope of getting elected next time around and stay a drain on the country going forward.
They should just hand that party over to Labour Youth and let them build a progressive movement for the future. The alternative is a SF stranglehold for years They’ve been a nothing party since Burton.
@Vonvonic: Burton is one of the reasons Labour died. Kelly tried to redeem his part in the death. However, he was not able to revive the party. Labour is dead. RIP
Totally unrelated:
My wife claimed she was late coming home tonight because she was ambushed by a group of elderly men who pinned her down and repaired her shoes.
Sounds like a load of old cobblers to me.
Aquaman is gone. No loss.
Interesting looking at the sneering at Labour. FF bankrupted the country, FG want to privatise as much as possible and would have us in NATO in the morning, SF still glorify the paramilitary wing, and collectively they are on 70% in the polls. Interesting people can forgive parties of far worse things than Labour have ever done.
@Brendan: FF and FG are consistently at less than half the vite share they have been at for years. People haven’t forgiven them at all and I don’t know where based on the comments here you come to that opinion. They are 3 parties I will never ever vote for again and I know that many of my friends and family feel the same
@Gerard Smith: soul
Sounds very much a Trol
Sherlock seems to be enjoying it sneering behind Kelly’s back. Obviously not going to be any tears from him tonight:)
@Franny Ando: I think he had his name in the hat last time around, but withdrew it in the name of unifying the party.
@Sean Walsh: That worked well!
Good riddance to Alan “power suits me” Kelly. Now if we can just turf out Leaky Leo and Michael that money was just resting in my account Martin please?
What is it about “left” wing parties in Ireland? Labour infighting, the SOCDEM spin off, SF internal “discipline”, PBP joins up with Solidarity after Murphy quits Socialist party!!! & a motley crew of oddball independents…. They can’t even get their own individual parties together!!! Doesn’t bode well for a left coalition after the next election…. They’ll present an open goal for FFG again and even if they manage to cobble together a programme for government it won’t last!!!!!
@Jerriko17: spoken like a true trol
@Seoirse Ó Staighe: if you look up the definition of what you accuse me of.. it’s “people who leave intentionally provocative or offensive messages on the internet in order to get attention, cause trouble or upset someone.”
Just to let you know I didn’t, I’m just expressing my opinion as a left leaning voter but maybe your “reply” fits the definition more. I notice on forums like this that people who have nothing constructive to say resort to name-calling as a first resort…
Will always be known as the water meter wa—er
And will retire on a nice fat pension courtesy of us poor saps.
@Paula Dunne: 100per cent and whose paying it,,Joe soap as usual
Did the Journal just delete a comment off this article that had 500+ likes?…
@Nameo Maximus: Other commitments also deleted.
@Nameo Maximus: Shocking censorship. An intelligent comment, just not an opinion endorsed by the biased moderator.
@Nameo Maximus: @Nameo Maximus: Shocking censorship. An intelligent comment, just not an opinion endorsed by the biased moderator.
@Nameo Maximus: @Nameo Maximus: Shocking, an intelligent comment…. Just not an opinion endorsed by the biased moderator.
@Vestigial: I never thought about it in that way before but you’re spot on. Let’s face it the past the past as well, if do really want an alternative to the established parties then we have to move on from the past term in government
Alan Kelly is giving up the drugs
Remember Gilmore anyone (my way or the highway)where is he now gone like the rest of them Spring,Howlin,Finlay, though he wasn’t leader,but he’s gone like the rest of them like the party they led
Don’t worry Alan…it will soon just be Irish Water under the bridge.
The fact it was a surprise might be one of the reasons your going. It’s kind of like saying you had no idea you were doing a bad job and about to be sacked. Your job is to know what’s going on.
Some good news in a world of turmoil.
Shocking censorship. An intelligent comment deleted, 500+ likes… Just not an opinion endorsed by the biased moderator.
@Ian Byrne: noted that your comment was deleted. Terribly biased. It seems everyone is entitled to an opinion as long as it doesn’t disagree with the moderator. The comment wasn’t even offensive.
Another’ liar he be no lose up the rebels haha
Rumours have it he’s going to Apply to join Sinn Fein ?
@Lar Lough: FG. Kelly’s natural home..It’s a bit of a tradition for former so called Labour leaders.
@Donal Desmond: just like Dimple’s O Dreary!
An intelligent comment deleted, 500+ likes… Just not an opinion endorsed by the biased moderator.
Kemmy.
The Labour Party began to lose its direction when the Cruzer and the other Smoked Salmon Socialists came on board.
Labour will join Sinn Fein, like Democratic Left joined Labour and Sinn Fein the workers party joined Democratic Left.
It’s the only way Labour will become relevant again. Power Mercs and Pensions.
Labour as we know it died after Joan and Alan screwed the people a few years ago.
More like being a b.e.l.l e.n.d Alan. Covid had nothing to do with it
Well done Alan an excellent leader and servant of the Labour Party
@Donal O’Carroll: He resigned because he couldn’t do the job.
@Donal O’Carroll: In what way? Or is this sarcasm. Definitely not factual.
I know Alan Kelly I wrote to his home address for help but I never heard from him. Well its just as well because I wouldn’t have got the help I needed all he is was doing in the dail was confusing the Tds and objecting to what they are doing this of course I think was getting his own back on them because they had but him out of the dail and that was the end of the labour Party.
@John Scully: ¯\_(⊙_ʖ⊙)_/¯
Alan Who?
@Vestigial: Kelly was Minister of the Environment. In opposition, a politician will market themselves to voters and accuse the government of being out of touch, etc. In government, a politician will resort to “We need stability. We need consistency. We have to prioritise the bigger picture, etc.” Kelly is not lacking in intelligence or work rate. He is also not lacking in arrogance (as an MEP also), personal ambition, etc. I think the biggest problem Ireland faces is too many voters haven’t figured out the rules of the political game yet.
Great news… A self opinionated
Who?
Time to send for Jeremy Corbyn
I would respectfully suggest that labour select Ged Nash as the new leader of the party in succession to Alan Kelly. Of all their TDs, he has the best chance of reviving working class support for the party.
@Dick Barrett: ah, ha ha ha ha.
@Dick Barrett: dead in the water party.
@Dick Barrett: he’s a terrible public representative. Does nothing for the constituency especially not for working class.
?
He Alan was telling Me hole Martin to get rid of the Russian Ambassador and was GONE SECONDS LATER HIMSELF
The other five TDs and their 10 remaining supporters thought he wasn’t doing a good job.
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Just saying.
Irelands my h@ted l@ndlord,
@Vestigial: he was aligning the party as a coalition partner to sf (plus whoever else they needed) that was very clear in his language this last year or so and this scared the party imo.
Must have been Russian Roulette ???
@Donal Desmond: they were in the minority, but I thought they did well in difficult times, under the circumstances.
I liked Kelly, he isn’t a muesi-knitting sandal-wearer, more a representative of people who actually work. But if they want to play the game, Backik is their best option.
Thought he was doing okay
have your say