The Dublin taxi service should be deregulated, with no limit on numbers, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce has urged in a report. The study calls for the phasing out over three years of the current separate taxi and hackney licensing system and its replacement by a single car-for-hire policy.
New licences would be restricted by qualitative criteria rather than numbers, and an independent body would take responsibility for the service.
But the chamber also wants emergency measures to tackle the public transport deficiency, pending overall reform. Measures suggested include allowing private bus operators to run services in the city after 11.30 p.m.
The Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation criticised the proposals, saying they would destroy the livelihoods of drivers and, in any case, would not work.
The federation president, Mr John Ussher, said: "Eighty per cent of drivers have borrowed to pay for plates and I know many who've remortgaged their homes to pay for them. Deregulation would certainly turn taxi-driving into a part-time job."
He added that the policy had been tried in other cities, notably Edinburgh, and had failed. Private buses had also been tried here before, until operators lost interest.
He said people should await the results of the 200 new taxis due on the streets in January and February. He said he would be happy to debate the situation at the Dublin Taxi Forum, which sits for the first time early next month.
A spokesman for Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Mr Noel Carroll, said the report - Taxi Services in Dublin: A New Approach - was a considered response to a perennial problem.
He insisted that the chamber was "pro-business, not anti-taxi driver" and had the interests of drivers in mind.
The report calls for existing licence plate holders to be guaranteed a new plate, and also seeks preferential terms for them in such matters as tax and insurance.
