The taxi shortage at Dublin Airport was "created" by the operator of the airport through the introduction of a saloon car "ban", a veteran taxi driver has said.
Numerous social media posts have decried the long waits for a taxi after flying into the airport after midnight with some saying the it is at least 40 minutes.
However, the Dublin Airport Authority said the taxi shortage is a "national issue and not unique to Dublin Airport" and added that they have taken steps to deal with it.
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Alan Wynne, who has been driving taxis since 1983, told Dublin Live the long queues would not exist if all the drivers making drop-offs were allowed to pick some of the "hundred" people queuing for a taxi outside arrivals.
To pick up passengers from the airport taxi drivers must have a daa permit.
The daa introduced requirements for all applicants for the permit to have wheelchair accessible cars in 2016. This means saloon cars are ineligible because they are too small to be wheelchair accessible.
The veteran taxi man said it is "madness" that he has to leave the airport with an empty car after a drop off when so many passengers are waiting for a lift.
Mr Wynne said: "There are queues of people waiting for taxis and there are approximately between 150 and 200 drop offs made by taxis at the airport every hour. It is the most dropped off place in the country.
"But most of those cars, like myself, have to leave the airport grounds and return back into town empty.
Mr Wynne said some of his passengers have been frustrated by the sight of empty taxis leaving the airport while they are waiting for one.
He said: "A lady said to me the other day, 'I noticed all the taxis dropping at T2 but none of them came back'. She ended up waiting 40 minutes for a taxi on Monday morning.
"She couldn't understand why the same cars [dropping people off] didn't come back around to pick them up.
There is a taxi holding area in-between the motorway and the terminals which feeds the ranks in Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
Mr Wynne said the holding area is "empty" but added there is "no shortage" of taxis at the airport.
He said: "But at the moment most of them are empty... but there is no shortage of taxis at Dublin Airport. The shortage has been created by the Dublin Airport Authority.
"They will not give the permits out to saloon vehicles like myself. Instead, people are being left standing waiting for a taxi. It is absolute madness."
He added: "It's crazy, it is absolutely crazy. I have never seen anything like it in my life. At times there are over 100 or 150 people queuing [for a taxi] at T1 or T2 and we have no access to them."
A spokesman for the daa said the taxi shortage is a "national issue and not unique to Dublin Airport" and added that new permits have been issued.
He said: "With fewer taxis operating generally, the number of taxis available at Dublin Airport is naturally being challenged, particularly late at night and at times of high demand.
"To help improve the availability of taxis at Dublin Airport, daa recently issued an additional 250 permits to allow new drivers to operate at the Airport."
The new permits means there are 1,420 licenced taxis permitted to operate at Dublin Airport "which is higher than the number of permits issued in 2019", the spokesman added.
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