Taxis On Strike

Taxis at Dublin airport on strike.

No pick ups for 2 days.

At the busiest time of the year the boil of discontent has burst at Dublin Airport.

As a taxi driver if you want to pick up someone at the airport you have to pay more than €400 per year to the DAA.
You join a queue and wait to be called to terminal 1 or 2.
The wait can be longer than 2 hours.

Then things start to go wrong, people are arriving at the arrivals at 1 while taxis are sent to 2 where they wait. While at 1 passengers are waiting with no taxis coming.

Then drivers busy playing cards in the canteen forget that they are blocking up the entire system.

The holding area was enlarged to hold the backlog of taxis.
Then a few days ago the DAA removed 70 or so places for the taxis who are waiting to collect.
The overflow went back to the road and the police were called.
They issued tickets and at one point a Garda drew pepper spray and his baton.
(not a great decision)
This was the spark which finally ignited the powder keg.

7.30 they say that there is settlement