Taxi driver Kevin O’Dwyer at the Potato Market taxi rank in Carlow town
Photo: michaelorourkephotography.ie
By Elizabeth Lee
A TAXI DRIVER with 25 years’ experience has hit out against the abuse that gets hurled at him on a daily basis, including racial slurs and having his car kicked and spat at.
Kevin O’Dwyer works in Carlow town as a taxi driver and uses the taxi ranks at Potato Market and at the train station for picking up fares. In recent months, however, he’s seen a worrying shift towards regular drivers nonchalantly parking in the taxi ranks, leaving their vehicles for considerable amounts of time and blocking up valuable space for the taxi drivers.
Kevin said that on several occasions when he’s asked people to move their cars, he’s been verbally abused. On one occasion, he was told to “f–k off back to his own country” because he speaks with an English accent, while another time his car was kicked and a person spat at it. Foreign taxi drivers get racially abused on a regular basis, but Kevin said that they’re reluctant to speak out in case it makes matters worse.
“We have to ask people to move out of the rank, but when we do, we are abused. I’m not the only one who gets racial abuse. There are a lot of foreign drivers working in Carlow now and they get verbally abused. They don’t want to speak out about it. Saturday night is the worst time for the abuse,” said Kevin.
Kevin, whose parents are both Irish, was raised in Leeds but has been living in Ireland for 30 years and considers himself an Irishman. He’s seen a lot of changes in the taxi business since he started 25 years ago, and one notable feature is the lack of respect for drivers and the space they need to operate from.
“We get all sorts parking in the taxi ranks. Up at the train station is the worst, especially around school times. I’ve known people to miss their trains because the taxi couldn’t get parking. In Potato Market there’s also an issue with the wheelchair parking space. I’ve seen an elderly man trying to park in the disabled parking space but couldn’t. He had to keep driving and find parking somewhere else and then walk back to Potato Market,” continued Kevin.
He also said that it’s been “years” since he’s seen a traffic warden on the streets of Carlow and that he rarely sees gardaí issuing tickets on the taxi ranks.
“This had been going on for years and we’re getting fed up with it. The taxi drivers can’t get into the ranks. The abuse comes from other drivers when I confront them. They think it’s okay for them to park wherever they want and get nasty when they’re asked to leave,” said Kevin.
He also called on Carlow County Council to put up signage at the taxi ranks, warning people that if they park there illegally they risk getting a fine, and to increase traffic warden patrols.
Pádraig O’Gorman, director of services for Carlow County Council, told The Nationalist that two full-time traffic wardens operate in Carlow town and that he was unaware of the issue. He said that he would bring the matter of illegal parking at taxi ranks to their attention, while also pointing out that the traffic wardens work during the day, so any out-of-hours illegal parking was the remit of the gardaí.
