MORE than one in four taxi drivers stayed off Dublin's roads during a garda crackdown on rogue operators and criminal drivers over the weekend.

It is understood that around 2,700 taxi drivers stayed off the roads in the capital during the clampdown.

Officers mounted an operation involving checkpoints to target drivers who have serious criminal convictions, or who were in breach of vehicle safety rules and were not properly licensed.

Gerard Macken, who is on the National Transport Authority's (NTA) taxi advisory committee and is a member of the Taxi Alliance of Ireland, estimated that there were 25pc fewer taxis operating in Dublin.

He said that some estimates placed the figure at close to 33pc of all registered drivers.

Status

Mr Macken advised taxi passengers to download the driver check phone application, which allows people to check the status of their drivers.

"The reduction of drivers shows that a lot of drivers don't want to appear on the driver check app.

"If they didn't come out, then there are questions that have to be asked," he said.

"Certainly there was a lot more courtesy on the roads (over the weekend)," he added.

There are a total of 30,111 licensed taxi drivers in the country, while 11,077 taxi, limo and hackney vehicles operate in Dublin.

Gardai are compiling statistics for the number of fines and other penalties issued during the weekend operation.

Transport Minister Alan Kelly told the Herald that following the success of the weekend clampdown, there would be further initiatives.

"There are going to be more operations like the one that took place this weekend.

"We have tripled the number of enforcement officers and the gardai have new powers so there will be more visibility of enforcement of the taxi regulations than ever before," he said.

He added: "Taxi drivers who do their job professionally and follow the regulations have nothing to fear. In fact, too many of them have has to compete with rogue operators and that is unfair,"

"Customers are entitled to feel confident in the standard of services. The vast majority of taxi drivers do their job very well and these are the drivers we should support."

Convictions

Officers were also targeting drivers with serious criminal convictions who are working in contravention of the regulations that disqualify them from driving taxis.

Drivers operating without an official licence, those who are not adhering to safety regulations and drivers who are not putting sufficient effort into maintaining high consumer standards are a concern.

Legislation introduced last year was designed to ensure that drivers with serious convictions would have their licences revoked, but the Labour politician said this process is still ongoing.

"I'm confident anyone with a conviction for sexual assault or murder will not be allowed to drive a taxi," said Mr Kelly last week.

Ahead of the operation Assistant Garda Commissioner John Twomey said most taxis were compliant with the rules.

lbyrne@herald.ie