Dublin taxi drivers ordered to remove "racist" green lights

[CelticViking]

The Irish transport minister has described green lights on some Dublin taxis as "inherently racist".

Leo Varadkar said it was "inherently xenophobic" that some taxi drivers had placed them on their vehicles to distinguish those driven by native Irish from those driven by migrants.

He has ordered that the lights be removed.

The drivers said the lights were not meant to be racist but to show when a driver was available for hire.

Christy Humphrey from the National Private Hire and Taxi Association said they were not meant to signify anything.

"All the light is indicating is that it is a taxi," he said.

"It is not indicating that the man driving the taxi is black or white.

"They are certainly not meant to signify they are Irish because anybody of any nationality can go in and buy one.

"You can buy them outside the taxi industry, you don't have to be in the taxi industry to avail of them.

"They're freely available to anyone."

Mr Humphrey said anyone using the green lights was breaking the law.

"It is illegal to display anything on your roof sign in Dublin other than a telephone number where you can be booked or a representative group that represents you," he said.

He said similar lights were available in Spain and other European countries.
"They're a small green light that sits on the roof of the car," he said.

"People bought them because the signs, unlike any other part of the country or the world are all different sizes and shapes.

"Some are made of cheap plastic, they fade, rather than replace the roof signs, people have put these green lights on which are effective

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18068782

Leo Varadkar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Varadkar
Varadkar was born in Dublin, the son of an Indian father (a retired GP in Blanchardstown) and an Irish mother. He was educated at King's Hospital School

[morski]

I'm sure his mum's extremely proud of him.