The National Transport Authority received 108 complaints about taxi and small public service vehicle drivers in Galway in the first nine months of 2025 and the first five months of 2026. The Connacht Tribune obtained the figures under freedom of information.
Fare disputes and overcharging made up more than 49 of the 108. Conduct and behaviour made up 32. This year the balance changed. In the first five months of 2026, conduct, behaviour and identification were almost half of Galway’s complaints, ahead of fares.
This year
Galway recorded 41 complaints from January to May 2026. Only Dublin, with 626, and Cork, with 56, had more.
Nineteen were about a driver being a nuisance or a danger. Thirteen were about fares and overcharging, six of them because a driver would not take a card or had no card machine. Eight were about refusing a job or not finishing a journey. The paper also lists three about overcharging or change, two about the meter and two about the route.
The paper says most of this year’s complaints were in the city centre. Eyre Square accounted for 17 per cent, Galway Coach Station for nearly 10 per cent, and the hardstand on Bridge Street for 7 per cent. Cross Street, Salthill and Knocknacarra were each named in 5 per cent.
What happened in 2025
Complaints rose through the year: 21 in the first quarter, 16 in the second, and 30 in the third, the quarter that covers the summer and the Galway Races.
Those 67 complaints ended as follows. Officers issued 13 fixed payment notices, nine of them for fare offences and two each for hiring and for driver behaviour. Eighteen drivers were told their legal duties. Nineteen cases did not progress. Eleven were dismissed for weak or wrong evidence. Five found no offence. One is still under investigation. None went to court.
The open case is the one in the Tribune’s headline. The paper does not say what the complaint is, or name the driver.
The penalties
NTA compliance officers and gardaí can issue a fixed payment notice of up to €250. Refusing a card, or not carrying a working card machine, is €200. So is failing to display the driver card. Not running the meter on a hire, and unreasonably refusing a passenger, are €150 each. The notice can be paid within 28 days, or within the next 28 days at half as much again. After 56 days the NTA prosecutes.
Nationally, complaints rose from 1,713 in 2024 to 1,815 in 2025, about 6 per cent. The paper says payment and fare disputes drove that rise.