A Dublin taxi representative has said that “public safety is non-existent” in response to the fact that the National Transport Authority (NTA) currently employs just 28 compliance officers, who are tasked with overseeing the country’s 26,000 taxis.
Following a query from Gript regarding how many compliance officers the NTA employs, a spokesperson for the State agency confirmed that there are currently 28 compliance officers.
Compliance officers work “for the benefit of the industry and the travelling public,” according to the NTA website, which states that they are there to ensure compliance with SPSV legislation in order to ensure public safety and so that “legitimate, professional operators do not have to compete with others operating to lower standards”.
Speaking to Gript, Tom Barton of the Dublin Taxi Association (DTA) said that the NTA says it strives to maintain the highest standards possible but at the same time, while their policy is in relation to the high standards, ”how can they justify saying that the taxi industry is safe with only 28 enforcement officers? For roughly 26,000 taxis”.
“It’s a health and safety issue, regardless of anything else,” Mr Barton said.
Mr Barton said that he believes it would be the opinion of most professional taxi drivers that industry enforcement should “go back to An Garda Síochána like it was in the past.”
In response to a question about whether the shortfall in NTA compliance officers jeopardises public safety, Mr Barton said that “public safety is non-existent”.
“Considering the fact of the proportion of [taxi] drivers to the proportion of enforcement officers…it’s a free for all out there on the streets. It’s an absolute free for all,” he said.