In December 2006 a number of taxi drivers approached me in Dublin Airport, they were complaining about the facilities in the holding area known as The Kesh. I decided to hold a ballot of drivers in the airport to see if the drivers would want a group just to represent them at Dublin Airport.

I held the ballot in January 2007 from 9am to 9pm in Flyers Cafe and the result was - 478 drivers voted - 463 voted yes to have their own association, 13 were against, and 2 spoiled votes.

With the mandate of these drivers I set about forming a Committee of interested people to get the group started. In Feburary 2007 we held our first meeting, during this meeting we discussed many issues including a group name and we finally agreed on

We then set out to gain negotiating rights with the Dublin Airport Authority - D.A.A.

The Chairman of the D.A.A. Mr. Gary Mc. Gann I must say was more than helpful to our group. In one of his letters he suggested to us to write to the four other groups in order to gain acceptance into the Forum, this we did but we failed to get a reply from ANY of the groups. 

We then engaged in another series of letters to The Chairman Mr. Mc. Gann and also one of the Directors Mr. Robert Hillard whom I must say was also very helpful to our group, also at this stage we were in constant communication with Ciaran Carton the Landside Manager with D.A.A.

Ciaran suggested to us to write to the other 4 groups again to gain acceptance to the Forum, this we did but again we received no reply to our letters.

We then wrote to The Chairman Mr. Mc. Gann explaining what we had done and again asked for his help to move things forward. 

On November 26th. 2008 we received a letter from both Mr. Mc. Gann (Chairman) and Mr. Hillard (Director) of the D.A.A. telling us that although we were not part of the Forum, the D.A.A. will deal with D.A.T.A. on the same basis as the other representative bodies.....

So finally at last we are able to Represent our Members at Dublin Airport.

We held our first meeting with the D.A.A. on December 15th. 2008 and minutes from this meeting will be posted on the website as soon as we have them to hand.