Comments on: Irish Taxi Council, They Haven’t Gone Away.

By: kieran weir

kieran weir — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:01:47 +0000

i firmly believe that all full time taxi drivers should give there full support to the ITC and all the effort these people are trying to do for our industry and all on a voluntary basis.Its about time us full time drivers got up and showed our support for what they are trying to achive instead of sitting at home or working while a small few help out in organised protests.
keep up the good work Frank Byrne.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:49:39 +0000

@tirnanog33. It’s unlikely that CTR will be issuing saloon plates in 2012. Naturally, saloon licences will be subject to the 9 year rule and the 3 year rule.

By: tirnanog33

tirnanog33 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:39:52 +0000

All drivers who bought toyota vans for wheelchair licences will not qualify in this category from 2012 and will have to buy an ordinary licence from Cathleen, or preferably,somebody leaving the industry.
Deregulation/re-regulation/new regulation, gone crazy.Meanwhile the drivers suffer, and suicides will continue as the recession deepens and part time retires prison officers and other civil servants on huge pensions emerge nightly to cream off the crumbs that might provide bread on the table for full time drivers.
Dempsey/Fahy/Fianna Fail-gangsters one and all.!

By: SCRUMPY

SCRUMPY — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:33:38 +0000

i’am astrounded by by hypocrasy by tdfc and now itc they continue to state they represent full-time taxi-drivers only, ? complete and utter nonsense, while they continue to co’habit with others i.e unions organisations/ federations, , who constantly recruit part/ timers non-nationals with no proper backround criteria etc ? should you for any any reason be in doubt ? ask their represenatives to supply you with proof of their full time members they cant ? money for recruitment is their god ? no matter from whom ? even the infamous kathleen doyle cant supply the amount of full-time taxi -drivers from her commissions national register ? check it yourself’s. and you continue to wonder why diverseity will never be conquered in our industry, how can it when it’s the patients who are running the asylum ? one final point in 2007 there were approx 1’500 taxi’s today 2009= aprox 28’000 almost double ? what has been achived ? a large fleet increase ? predicton for 2012 approx 30’000 taxi’s why ? becasuse whether w/a taxi’s or not they are still taxi.s ? and kathleen doyle has reserved the right to re-issue standard taxi licenses if she cant sell enough w/a plates ? you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can fool the taxi people all of the time ? and they have been doing so since 2000. look at the facts and statistics ? the damage is done and irreverseable they cant put humpty together again ?

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:46:42 +0000

@Frank Byrne.
Them there “leeked” documents were leAked on the website of ACTD which is ITCs only Dublin affiliate and was promoted on Roy’s forum as ITCs preferred method for Dublin members to subscribe to ITC.

One would assume the executive committee you refer to is composed of ITCs “best drivers”, the same drivers ITC itself concludes will struggle with a simple test on industry rules and regulations. You should be grateful to whichever executive leaked the document, making it available to a forum which attracts literate contributors.

Having previously drafted a document for ITC I can assure anyone reading that this is pure bullshit. ITC don’t do consultation………pull the other one mate, it’s got bells on!

Hate is your job…Those of us with an interest in solutions deal in logic.

Democracy? Has ITC altered it’s constitution?

You yourself were elected as President in dubious circumstances. You stood as representative of TDFC (who later advised members to join “which ever union…”). It was then discovered that TDFC, under ITCs constitution, were not entitled to delegate status, never mind presidential status….enter ACTD!

Regards,

Stephen O’Connell.

By: Frank Byrne

Frank Byrne — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:14:13 +0000

statement:
The ITC represent full time taxi drivers ONLY! Thats it! Everyone else has tried to make money from us..
We have none whatsoever! If you wish to survive in this awful situation then talk to us.
085 7652277

By: Wondering?

Wondering? — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:19:12 +0000

Roy,
Clarification is needed on a few things that have been mentioned in recent threads:
1.The ITC have not issued any newsletter to date. The delay has been due to the awaiting of results of our meeting with the Commission for Taxi Regulation. We are now working as fast as we can to put this newsletter together as we are well aware of the appetite for knowledge for the future within the industry as opposed to the TDFC’s type of newsletters this will be National information sheet and will be far more comprehensive. The newsletter that one of your contributers has posted on the forum is not accurate or reflective of the opinion of the ITC in any way as it was a consultative document beginning at the hard edge meant only for the eyes of the executive council while we got our combined opinion agreed, I do not wish to ask you to take it down as even the “leeked” documents should be shown. That doesn’t mean we are hiding information. We wish to be as open and informative as TDFC were but we live in delicate times and we wish to ensure that whatever we publish is accurate as the the decisions that are impending will have grave consequences for our industry.
2. The impending proposals of the CTR are well published and discussed on your site so I won’t go into them here except to say that I hope everyone has read them and understands what they mean to them.
3. I find it perplexing that members of the forum have decided post haste that the ITC has become one of their pet hates. Comparible to the examples of the mistakes gone by! ie NTDU, NPHTA etc. I faced an election process on july 21st of this year, when did any other representative body do so? Also the executive of the ITC faced an election process and to this date we have not asked for or recieved one penny in remuneration. We will not be seeking to sell insurance policies or to complete tax returns-ever. I am upset to think that we would be percieved as being here to represent the business interest of our industry compared to the far more important job of trying to recover our jobs on behalf of the full time taxi drivers of Ireland. The ITC have no ambition to replace the NTDU or any other body other than to say we feel let down and railroaded by these people to the extent that we felt it necessary to try to retake control of OUR industry.
We are trying to be democratic and open but this is hard to achieve when you consider the industry has more than 20,000 licensed taxi’s and 47,000 licensed drivers and are being challenged on every front.
Information is only useful if it helps you and right now all information aids those that wish to get their way against full time taxi drivers in the industry so we must be careful how we use it.
4. I am very aware that the majority of people watching this site have NO interest in the betterment of the working lives of the majority of full time taxi drivers and the ITC says to you;
We have fround you out and eventually the Public will find you out, can you deal with the consequences??
5. The finer details of the ITC’s understanding of coming reforms will be published here in the next 2 days,
but if you need more Roy , give me a call,
Regards and thank you,

Frank Byrne,
President,
Irish Taxi Council.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:42:52 +0000

Stephen your opinion is obviously driven by dislike and is not in any way objective.

Your information must either be currently provided by a malicious detractor or a a well meaning supporter who is not in possession of all of the facts.

ITC like any organization learns as it grows. If not it becomes a dinosaur and ineffective.

ITC has made mistakes. That is without doubt but I do take offense at your statement that they lack negotiation skills.
Their recent meetings have been extremely fruitful and several mentions of their contributions to finding a solution to the current mess at the JOC are a testament to this

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=TRJ20091104.xml&Page=1&Ex=H2#H2

TDFC were a lobby group. It had supporters from right across the wide spectrum within the industry many of whom were affiliated to various different representative organizations and some to none. It would in my opinion have been disingenuous to all of those involved and insulting to some if TDFC had done anything else other than make an open statement.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:39:59 +0000

“Each meeting that is attended be it by an individual or a representative group (whomever that may be) where the dire current situation is explained and possible solutions put forward for discussion is a positive move be it personalized or not.”

ITC have proved through publication of minutes of meetings that they don’t have the skills to negotiate. In recent times they have proved that they are not even capable of making it past the security desk.

“If by chance all end up on the same page then all the better.”

You sum the situation up very well in this quote. TDFC started with the intent of offering something different – communication, no vested interests, etc. – If ITC have nothing different to offer there is no point to their continuation as a fringe organisation. This point is reinforced by TDFCs parting advice to it’s supporters: join “which ever union they believe represents them best”.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:05:28 +0000

Stephen while I would agree that apathy is rife and that there are a sizable number within the industry who want somebody else to do the work while they reap the benefits I don’t surround myself with those people and don’t allow that attitude to affect what I do.

I like the personal approach of Mr. Byrne and his colleagues though I do appreciate that this approach would not suit all.

Each meeting that is attended be it by an individual or a representative group (whomever that may be) where the dire current situation is explained and possible solutions put forward for discussion is a positive move be it personalized or not.

We do after all live in a democracy and nobody wants supporters/members who are there just because they always have been. So we carry on in hopes of making even a small change.