Derry Coughlan Cork representative of the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation was speaking after the National Transport Authority announced that fares are set to rise by an average of 12 percent from September.
It says the planned increase reflects the increased operating costs faced by drivers.
The NTA claims that the fare increases will also account for the cost of introducing mandatory cashless payment facilities in all taxis.
Speaking to RedFM News, Derry Coughlan says taxi drivers would prefer to get more work rather than increase prices
"We are not greatly interested in a fare increase as it can do a lot of damage to us, especially in the long journeys and at night. Let's face it a lot of our night time work is students, young people in apprenticeships, just starting in jobs and are socialising. In the day the trade is a lot of old people that are using taxis for convenience and to carry their messages. A lot of people are cribbing that they can't afford taxi fares - we go along with that we would prefer to get the volume of work to get the turnover"
