Assaults on taxi drivers are not recorded on the Garda PULSE system despite growing concern about drivers’ personal safety.
Simon Harris, who served as Justice Minister until Thursday, confirmed that no records are available for the number of assaults on drivers for the last five years in response to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD Emer Higgins.
She had asked the Minister for a breakdown of the number of complaints of assault made by taxi drivers while on duty for each of the years 2018 to 2023.
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In response, Mr Harris said that the data is not available.
He explained: “I am advised by the Garda authorities that the occupation of a victim of any crime is not recorded in a structured manner on PULSE, and neither is there a crime incident type specific to taxi drivers.
“As a result the information requested by the Deputy related to 'assault against taxi drivers while on duty' does not exist and I am unable to provide any statistics related to same.”
Ms Higgins told the Irish Mirror that while she accepts that the PULSE system does not keep track of victims’ occupations, she believes that some sort of record must be maintained.
She raised concerns about the lack of taxi drivers available at nighttime.
“I think it will be really useful if we had a better idea of the scale of the problem when it comes to assaults on taxi drivers,” Ms Higgins said.
“There is a lack of available taxis in Dublin at night time. There's an increase in drivers working mornings and afternoons up until 4pm. Only 29% of drivers are now working nights.
“The NTA (National Transport Authority) did research on this and found that the two main reasons were customer behaviour and extra cleaning costs and then the concern for personal safety.
“Until we know the scale of the problem, it's very difficult to come up with any solutions. It is unfortunate that there isn't any data on this.
“I think the minister does need to look at how we then quantify it because if that is an issue that's putting people off working nights.
“As a result of that we don't have an availability of taxis for people on a night out and that's leaving young women in particular in a very vulnerable situation.
“I think we do need to get a handle on this.”
A survey carried out by the NTA last year said that of drivers who had stopped working nights, 48% said that they had done so because of personal safety concerns.
Some 21% of drivers who had stopped working nights had done so in the last three years.
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